Last Summer
by theunknownforce
Summary: One summer, the Weasleys decide to vacation in the woods. One freak hurricane carries Draco and Ginny to a mysterious island where they must work together to survive. Over time, friendship grows between them and develops into something more. But what will
1. Whirlwind Surprises

-1**REVISED Jan. 6, 2006**: Thanks to daciangoddess for beta-ing this!

"Okay, everybody has everything, right? Bathroom trips done? We're not doubling back for _anything_ or _anyone_; do I make my self clear?" Mrs. Weasley let her eyes sweep through her group of redheaded children, and her youngest son's two best friends, Harry and Hermione. She waited until they nodded their heads before herding them outside the door into the courtyard where a shiny black car stood waiting for them.

"Blimey, where did we get that from?" Ron's excited voice rang through the front of the Burrow. The Weasleys weren't very wealthy, and their last car now ran wild in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts.

"Arrangements at the Ministry for special transportation," Mr. Weasley answered while loading the luggage in the trunk compartment.

"Ah, nothing like a bit of mother nature to give some an artist some _inspiration_," Fred said as he quickly sat down in the window seat before his twin, George, could steal his spot.

"Oh no, you're not. If I catch you two making any of your absurd _products, _you two will be polishing the house from top to bottom once we get back!" Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out from the front passenger seat.

"Where are we going again? I hope owls will be able to reach it, the Ministry might need to reach me even though I'm on vacation-" Percy's uptight workingman voice started sounding the second the engine started.

"Perce." George began patting Percy's arm gently in a grandmotherly fashion. "I'm sure the owls will be telling you how the Ministry's collapsing left, right, and center without you there being _important _and _useful_."

The entire backseat rang with laughter as Mr. Weasley assured his son that owls will have no trouble finding their location.

"No need to worry. After all, Shackleberry Woods is quite a popular summer resorting spot and owls are bright animals." He took a sharp turn to avoid a speeding car. "There is a function on this car…might come in handy and we can get there a little quicker…" he trailed off, and his wife cut him off before he could use magic to control the car.

"Oh no, you're not! It's suspicious enough that all of us can fit into this car without you charming it to fly and risk Muggles seeing us! Remember what department you work in!" She shot him a warning glance and returned to reading her _Witch's Weekly _magazine.

"I read that there was a Wizarding battle near the area we're staying in. I'd love to take a look," Hermione suggested to Harry and Ron.

"No point. Even if you tell Binns that you just had tea with Merlin yesterday, he'll still call you Miss Greenwood in class," Ron pointed out and Harry snickered.

"That's not what I meant; I mean, there's all that _history,_ and it's so interesting that we can stand at the same spot where such an important part of Wizarding history occurred."

"Well, if you want to go someplace where dozens of wizards snuffed it, that's fine with me. Harry and I can play Quidditch." Ron bit into a Chocolate Frog and resumed arguing with Hermione before swallowing.

Ginny sighed and looked out the window at the passing scenery. It was always like this with her family. Everything was loud, noisy, and big. This time, it wasn't even as chaotic as their trip to Egypt. She remembered how they had had to Apparate there, since flooing internationally was impossible. They couldn't travel by those Muggle 'arrow plain' devices either as Egyptian magical communities lived separately from Muggles. It had been absolute chaos, with her parents doubling back every time because none of them were old enough to Apparate yet, and they had had to travel via side-along Apparation with their parents.

She watched Fred and George play Exploding Snap in the backseat of the car and smelled burnt leather as the cards fell off the seat and exploded on the floor of the car. Sometimes, it was so lonely being the only girl in the family. Hermione was coming along on this trip, but she usually talked to Harry and Ron. Bill was still in Egypt, and Charlie was still in Romania, but they might join the rest of the family if they could take some time off.

Her father had come home from work one day announcing that his co-worker, Perkins, had recently inherited a resorting home in Shackleberry Woods from a rich bachelor uncle. Perkins didn't like living in the wild, and had offered to lend it to him and his family for a month. After a series of arrangements with the Ministry for transportation and vacationing time, a few days of her mum nagging everyone to start packing and cleaning the house before they left, (which Ron had protested was pointless, since she would make them clean it again once they get back) they were off to their vacation. Ginny was excited. According to a pamphlet she had seen, Shackleberry Woods had very beautiful scenery, and since it was a Wizarding resort, they could all play Quidditch and fly as high as they wanted on broomsticks without worrying about being seen by Muggles. On the trip, however, she would just have to amuse herself with reading a book.

Her eyes scanned faded old page, and she felt like falling asleep right from the first sentence.

'_Being a Prefect in your Hogwarts career provides excellent opportunity to exercise your leadership, commitment, and communications skills.'_

"What are you reading?" Percy asked Ginny.

"What? I dunno," she showed him the cover of her book.

"'_Sucessful Prefects and Their Post-Hogwarts lives,' _excellent choice, I loved that book." Percy turned back to the book he was reading. That would explain why the words seemed to be hypnotizing her to sleep just from being printed on the page, this was Percy's book. Ginny gave up trying to stay awake while staring at the pages, and began to nod off.

"Well, we're here! Everybody off! We can stretch our legs a little bit, that was a long ride!" Mr. Weasley's excited voice woke Ginny up and she climbed groggily out of the car.

As her eyes began to focus and clear up, she could see that the pamphlet had not been misleading. The house was perched on a dock that stretched out a little bit into the lake; she could see that there were many other little docks perched out along the shores. The lake itself was calm and smooth, like glass, and she could see the reflection of the clear, blue sky in it. At the centre of the lake, she could see what looked like a tiny little island surrounded by misty fog. The ground was slightly moist, without being muddy. They were surrounded by massive, hundred-foot tall pine and cedar trees, which filled the air with their fresh scent. Ginny turned back to the island.

_That's odd, why is there fog surrounding that island when it's such a nice day today._

Her thoughts were distracted by the excited squeals coming from the comfortable looking cabin.

"Blimey! Look at the pantry!"

"Oh, it's wonderful, all these books!"

"Is that firewhisky in the cabinet?"

She walked through the open door and was relieved that it didn't smell like cats the tent, unlike the tent they had borrowed from Perkin's at the Quidditch World Cup had. In fact, it seemed to be a very nice home. The kitchen appeared to be already filled with food even though they had just arrived. The living room was comfortably furnished with plump armchairs, cherry wood coffee tables, an impressive fireplace, and a large tapestry of the woods, which hung on one wall from the ceiling to the floor. Ginny walked over to where Hermione's excited squeal had come from. It was a large room, surrounded by shelves of books; Hermione was already picking a few off the shelves and stacking them against her stomach. Ginny poked her head next door. Fred and George were stuffing bottles of firewhisky underneath their bed before Mrs. Weasley could find out and confiscate them.

"Fancy a game of Quidditch?" she asked the two of them as they rolled the bottles carefully underneath their beds.

"Careful with that one, you don't want to be rolling them too hard- what were you saying, Ginny?" Fred turned around to face her standing in the doorway.

"Just wanted to know if you guys wanted to play some Quidditch, or if you're too busy hiding alcohol from Mum." She eyed the cabinet in their room slyly.

"Give us fifteen minutes so we can get our business done." George took two more bottles out of the cabinet and passed it to Fred.

After dragging Ron away from the kitchen, the five of them headed outside with their broomsticks over their shoulders. They were the only ones out, since Hermione didn't like flying, and Percy was apparently too absorbed in his reading.

"Well, we don't have goalposts or anything so I guess we're playing 'steal'." Ron dropped the pumpkin that they were using as a Quaffle on the ground. 'Steal' was their version of mini Quidditch where there were only Chasers and Quaffles. The object of their version of the game was to pass the Quaffle to every member of your team without having the other team intercept it.

"Our number's uneven," George pointed out.

"Okay, George and I are captains," Fred suggested.

"You two look alike, it'll be too complicated," Harry said, "Ginny and I will be captains."

"Nah, Ginny will probably want to be on your team." George sent Harry an exaggerated wink.

"Shut up; Harry and I are captains!" Ginny glared at the twins.

"Okay, let's just choose the teams now." Ron stepped in between them to urge them to hurry up with the game.

"Fine, I'm choosing first, Fred." Ginny pointed at her brother.

"Uh, then I guess I'll pick George." Harry pointed at the other twin.

"No, that'll get too confusing; Fred and George should be on the same team or else we won't know whether we're passing to someone on our own team or the opposite team," Ron pointed out.

"I'll pick you, then." Harry gestured towards Ron.

"Since I chose Fred, I guess I have to get George too." Ginny shrugged.

"Our team gets the Quaffle first, we have more people," Fred quickly grabbed the pumpkin and wrapped his arms around it.

"Fine, but we still need some kind of clearing to play in," Harry looked around at the forest. If they played there, there would be a very big chance of smashing into a tree.

"We can always play above the lake," Ron suggested.

"Mum will murder us!" Ginny exclaimed.

"If we fly far away from the cabin and none of us falls into the lake, she'll never know," George reassured her and mounted his broom.

"Fine, if mum finds out, its your fault." Ginny mounted her broom and kicked off, gliding around in the air, enjoying the fresh breeze rustling through her flaming red hair.

Before Fred could respond, a green blur shot past, and Harry almost got knocked off his broom.

"Who-" Ron began; once the figure stopped moving, he saw who it was. "Ferret boy?"

"Plenty of logs to bewitch, hmm?" Draco Malfoy eyed the twins' old Cleansweeps with a smirk. Even though it was summer, he still dressed in emerald-green wizards' robes.

"Sod off! We're playing Quidditch!" Ron yelled at him angrily.

"Has your pigsty of a family finally been evicted? I must say, camping out in the wild must be luxury compared to your little hut." He turned his broom away as the four Weasleys and Harry followed him on their brooms.

"Hand me the Quaffle!" Ginny yelled at Fred, who threw the pumpkin for her to catch.

"Give it to me!" Harry yelled. Only his Firebolt could catch up in speed with Draco's Nimbus Two Thousand and One.

"Back off, I'm doing it!" Ginny yelled. Draco stopped momentarily after hearing her voice, and turned his head around, stopping just before he touched the mist surrounding the island. Ginny was too enraged to see that, even though they were so close to the island, they still couldn't see through the fog.

"Something wrong, Weaslette?" Draco taunted, before speeding off again dodging left and right on his broomstick.

"Go to hell!" she yelled, and accelerated her broom towards him with the pumpkin still in her hand. Draco moved backwards slightly, and his fingers went through the fog; the tip of Ginny's broom touched the mist just as she was about to throw the pumpkin.

Both of their brooms jerked wildly and suddenly, as if a tornado had hit the lake. A swirl of wind and water circled around the two of them and they twirled higher and higher into the tower of wind. After what seemed like an eternity of twists and spins, Draco and Ginny landed on the hard ground in a heap, Draco on top of Ginny, with his lips right against hers.


	2. After the Crash

-1Chapter 2

Draco's blue-gray eyes bore into Ginny's caramel-brown eyes with their lips pressed together for what seemed like an eternity before one of them recovered from the shock.

"Pervert!" she pushed him off and smacked him hard across the left cheek, leaving an angry red mark.

"What the hell was that about! I should be the one slapping you! Imagine my lips touching a filthy beggar and blood-traitor!" he yelled back angrily, rubbing his sore cheek with his hands. Fire burned behind those cold irises. It reminded Ginny of slime, ugly and disgusting.

"Bring me back!" Ginny demanded and stomped her feet on the muddy ground. Draco thought she looked like a bratty baby, except without the spoiling of rich parents. He laughed inwardly, rich was the last word on Earth used to describe the Weasley family.

"What? I have no idea what the hell you are talking about!" Draco squinted confusingly in the blinding sunlight and a dazed look drifted over his face as he looked at his surroundings. All he could see were trees illuminated by sunlight.

"Bring me back! You moved me somewhere! You better take me back or my brothers are going to club you to death!" she threatened and anger boiled in her and she felt the temptation to smack him hard on the head as he still stared at the trees with a dazed expression on his face.

"Where are we?" he asked, shielding his eyes from the sun.

"What? I thought you brought me here?" she yelled at him louder than before, hoping that her voice would somehow penetrate his thick skull.

"Why the hell would I bring you somewhere? So I can annoy myself in the company of a blood-traitor?" he retorted sarcastically, he was beginning to find tormenting this little weasel amusing.

"Stop calling me that!"

"What else can I call you? You and your family are a disgrace to wizards! All you do is kiss up to famous Potter and Mudblood Granger! I don't even want to be in the same place as you!"

"Well, Ferret-boy, what makes you think you're better than us? Our family doesn't grovel at the feet of evil wizards! It must be a great _honor_ to lick the bottoms of his feet, am I right? But wait, you're not important enough to inhale his farts yet!"

"Shut up!" he yelled back, she had hit a tender spot.

"Well you can't make me. What are you going to do, tell daddy?" she continued taunting, she noticed the cringe from the previous comment and felt a revenge induced euphoria as she watched him struggle to keep his signature smirk composed on his face.

"I said shut up!" there was anger in his voice now, not annoyance, but anger towards this bratty girl with tomato colored hair standing in front of him and jabbing at all his weak spots with her unworthy daughter-of-a-blood-traitor fingernail.

"Oh, Daddy! Evil Ginny Weasley's a big fat meanie! She's making me cry! She stole my little teddy bear away from me!"

"_Crucio!_" he bellowed.

"_Protego!"_ she threw out a shield charm.

They both silenced themselves a few moments later, nothing happened with their wands, they weren't working.

"What did you do to my wand?" Ginny demanded angrily.

"I didn't do anything to your bloody wand!" he retorted loudly, hoping for some type of Silencing Charm to come from his anger. Not only did the Weaslette's hair hurt to look at in the sunlight, her voice was painful to one's eardrums as well.

"Well, it's not working! Undo whatever Dark Magic you cast on me!"

"Who do I look like? Merlin?"

"I'm going to find my way out of here, you can stay here and feed the worms," she turned and walked away.

"Take your stupid pumpkin along with you!" he yelled at her back.

"The pumpkin can be your friend, it'll be your first!" she yelled back at him.

He took a rock and threw it at her, but he missed. She heard the rock hit the ground behind her and picked it up and threw it back at him, her aim was obviously better than his because it hit him hard on the head.

"You bitch!" he yelled in pain as blood began trickling down his face from the wound on his forehead.

"I-Why the hell didn't you duck!" she was surprised that the rock actually hit his head. She felt kind of good that she got back at him for insulting her, but she felt bad at the same time seeing his expression of pain.

"Merlin, you idiot! How the hell was I supposed to know you were going to chuck a rock at me!" Draco winced when he ran his fingers lightly over his wound.

"Well, nobody told you to throw the rock at me first!" she retorted.

They were both arguing like little kids but neither was willing to stop, fearing that it would display a sign of weakness.

"Just shut up and go away!" he was about to hit her when he saw that she still stood there, but a wave of dizziness caught him and he sat down and leaned against the tree trunk instead, "For now, I'm going to be the bloody gentleman and not take revenge on you for this! Later, when we're out of here, you're bloody paying."

Ginny was about to turn away, but she saw another painful grimace on his face as he tried to stop the blood from flowing out.

"Are you okay?" she asked. It felt awkward to actually talk to him instead of just insulting him.

Draco looked slightly surprised that she didn't insult him, but regained his composure by clearing his throat and made his voice slightly deeper.

"I'm fine."

"I'll-I'll just be leaving now," she looked at him doubtfully, because it was uncharacteristic for him not to be insulting her. This might be because he was planning to attack her when she wasn't noticing or he might be distracted by the pain of his wound.

"Go on ahead then," he said in his slightly deeper voice, "have a nice life."

"You…you too," she turned and walked away. She wasn't sure whether the comment was supposed to be genuine or sarcastic, but either way, she was going to get out of here, if she was feeling nice, she would send help for him. On the other hand, he did insult her endlessly ever since she laid eyes on him years ago at age eleven. Maybe it would serve him right to rot here alone.

Draco stared at her back until she turned walked behind a large oak tree and disappeared from view. He was stuck in the middle of nowhere all alone, his wand wasn't working, and his head was throbbing. He pressed the back of his hand against the wound on his head to try and stop the blood flow, but instead it only made the pain worse, he gave up.

_Might as well try and find my way out of here. Oh man, I'm turning into a lunatic like Potter, I'm talking to myself._

The sun was very bright and the heat of the sun was making his shirt damp. He squinted at the sky to try and find the North Star to figure out what direction he was heading in, but he realized that it was daytime.

_Get a hold of yourself, Malfoy. You're a man, you can survive in this bloody heat. If Weaslette can do it, I can too, I'm a damn pureblood wizard…_

He turned his head around to see if there was anybody there to give him some directions, but the heat was so intense that he was starting to feel a little lightheaded. Maybe he just needed a little rest. With the flying and arguing with the Weaslette, he was probably physically draining his body, all he needed was a little rest. His head began to spin and everything seemed to blur together.

"What the hell?" he mumbled. Then, everything went black.

Ginny kicked a rock and watched it roll into the path of a tree. She shielded her eyes with her hand and tried to block the glare of the sun out. Where was this place? There were trees everywhere and even though she had been walking for fifteen minutes so far, her surroundings still looked the same, except for the lack of her pumpkin and Malfoy. She lifted her head up, the trees were so high. Maybe, if she could fly up higher than the trees, she could find a path out of this place. On the other hand, she might as well fly out of here. But where was her broom? Did she lose it? She groaned at the thought of her broom sinking to the bottom of the lake. It wasn't a Firebolt or anything, but she still felt deeply attached to it. She remembered when Bill received it. It had a brightly polished handle with the words _Shooting Star_ emblazed on it in gold. The twigs were all the same size and perfectly straight. She remembered how the rest of her siblings all seemed to be stunned by it's beauty. Eventually, of course as the broom was passed down through the rest of her siblings, it's beauty diminished slightly, if not altogether, but Ginny was still deeply attached to it.

Another trickle of sweat rolled down her back and her thoughts drifted off her broom. She was tired, hot, and thirsty. She needed to find some kind of river or stream to get a drink or else she' d faint in this heat, but she was in the wild, how could she find water? She spotted the shade of a large tree nearby, if she couldn't find water, at least she could cool off in the shade. She closed her eyes as soon as she approached the shade and basked in it's luxurious cool temperature. It felt heavenly to actually enjoy walking again without having sweat pour out of your skin. In the middle of enjoying her shade, Ginny's feet kicked something soft and lumpy on the floor, she opened her eyes to see what it was.

"Bloody hell!" she exclaimed when she saw what it was.

"Ginny?" Fred called out and heard his own voice echo back at him from the surrounding forest and lake.

"Blimey, what the hell just happened?" Ron looked around for any signs of red hair.

"What was that wind? It couldn't have been Voldemort or anything, could it?" Harry asked with a worried expression on his face while the rest of them flinched at the mention of the Dark Lord's name.

"Err, no offense Harry, but I think You-Know-Who's more interested in going after you," George pointed out as he flew around the area where Ginny was moments before.

"Do you think Ginny's pulling a prank on us again like last time?" Fred asked as he zoomed around with George.

"What prank?" Ron asked with a confused expression on his face.

"Ickle Ronnikens was too small to remember."

"Shut up and get on with the story!"

"Charlie stole her teddy bear as a dare and she got mad so she climbed up a tree in our backyard and hid there for four hours. Mum went frantic of course and punished us even though it wasn't our fault, just as Ginny expected."

"This time, she shouldn't have anything to be mad at us about."

"One of us probably did something to her that made her mad and we didn't notice."

"Remember Mum explaining to us about Ginny's 'sensitivity due to her time of the month?'"

Fred and George snickered and Ron and Harry's expressions were a cross between disgust and embarrassment.

"Wait, wasn't she chasing after Malfoy?"

"So you think…"

"…Malfoy, the slimy git!"

"If he really did get her, we need to find her quick, "Harry pulled on his broom, ready to accelerate.

"Actually, if he did get her, his face would be covered in bat wings by now," George grinned amusingly at the thought.

"Either way, we need to find her before Mum finds that she's gone."

"Okay, lets split up and fly around here to see if we can find her," Fred threw them a silver pellet each. "Our new invention, if any one of us finds Ginny or anything's wrong, scratch it and throw it up in the air, it's a Firecracker Pellet."

"If we can't find her, we'll meet back here as soon as it gets dark," George said and they zoomed off leaving Harry staring at the mist of the island.

"I might as well get started here," he mumbled to himself and flew towards the mist. As soon as his broom hit the mist, two surprising events suddenly took place.


	3. The Angel and the Devil

-1Chapter 3

"Holy shit!" Harry exclaimed when he was thrown back after his broom touched the mist.

Just then, a loud cracking noise filled the air and Harry saw a brilliant blast of light in the sky.

"Ferret? Wake up!" Ginny kicked Draco's unconscious body. He stayed absolutely still. She bent down to examine him, but stopped herself and backed away a few feet.

"I'm not falling for this, I know you're going to pop up and punch me or something as soon as I come close enough!" she eyed him suspiciously, waiting for him to jump up and insult her.

Nothing happened.

She picked up a rock, if she threw it at him and he didn't move, then something must be really wrong with him. Nobody can be _that_ good of an actor.

The rock landed on his leg before rolling back onto the ground. He was still lying there, Ginny approached him slowly.

"This is your last chance, if you do something stupid like tripping me as soon as I'm close enough, I swear I'll kill you!" she was still half expecting him to sit up and call her 'Weaselette.'

At first glance, he seemed to be asleep and perfectly fine. His arm was draped over his forehead. She looked a little closer and saw that there was a trickle of red liquid seeping through the sleeve of the arm on his forehead. She moved his arm slowly away from his forehead as if afraid he was going to wake up. She winced when she saw the ugly gash that was probably from the rock she threw at him.

Now what was she supposed to do? She couldn't just leave him here, since it was partially her fault that he was lying here unconscious. If she just left him there, he might get eaten by wild animals or something. Even though she hated him, it would still be terrible to have that on her conscience.

Finally letting the better side of her win the inner battle, she examined his wound. Blood was flowing out. Normally, she would use a simple healing charm, but her wand seemed to not be working, she suddenly remembered something that Hermione said a few summers ago.

"_I just completed this course…"_

What course did she complete?

"_It's going to be very useful in the future…"_

What would be useful in the future?

"…_first aid…"_

What in the world was first aid?

"…_to stop bleeding…"_

Yes! This was it! She needed to figure out how to stop the bleeding on his head.

"…_remember 'RED', Rest, Elevate, Direct Pressure…"_

Right, rest, elevate, direct pressure. What the hell did it mean? He's lying down already! She was starting to feel jittery as more blood flowed out of Draco's wound.

_Calm down Weasley! You lived through being Fred and George's joke product test subjects for fifteen years, just a ferret and some bleeding, suck it up!_

She took a deep breath and clenched her trembling hands into a fist. Elevate, isn't that contradicting the first instruction? She can't leave him lying on the ground and lift him up at the same time. On the other hand, lying on the ground doesn't seem to be stopping his bleeding, maybe somehow lifting his six feet and two inches of bulky muscle off the ground with her bare hands would miraculously heal his gash.

Ginny placed her hands on Draco's underarms and tried to tug him upwards, his head lolled to the side and his body flopped back down to the ground with a thud. She stood beside him, panting.

"Damn you, ferret! Go on a diet or something!" she tried, again to lift him up, but only succeeded in dragging him a few inches in the dirt.

'Rest' and 'Elevate' apparently are not working, she still had her last chance: direct pressure. She looked at his gash in disgust. If this was Harry, Hermione, or her brothers, it wouldn't be that gross. This was _Draco Malfoy_, almost the sworn enemy of the Weasley family, and she was going to have to save his oh-so-very _important _life or something by laying her hands on his so-called 'Pure' Wizarding blood. She eyed his pitiful unconscious body with disgust. How can Crabbe and Goyle stand being around him? Maybe she should just let him die or something and save those two gorillas from their body guard duties.

_Damn, just do it Weasley! You don't want to get thrown into Azkaban for committing murder._

She reached forward slowly and placed the her palm on his forehead, she felt nauseous when she felt the warm liquid from underneath.

_Stop being so squeamish, its not like you've never seen blood before._

She pressed more firmly on the wound and heart a squelching sound as her skin rubbed against his. Ginny could literally feel her pulse against his as she nervously waited for his bleeding to stop. Her wrist was getting stiff and she couldn't feel her fingers anymore. She bent her neck and looked at the space between his head and her hand. She couldn't feel blood coming out of it anymore. She removed her hand and grimaced at the sight of Draco's blood caked on her hand.

Ginny realized that she should probably use some sort of makeshift bandage to tie around his head so dirt wouldn't get in the wound and infect it. She remembered one time Charlie scraped his knee and didn't want to tell their mother because he didn't want to get it scrubbed. Three days later, it was oozing yellow pus. Not a pretty sight. On the other hand, it would hide more of Malfoy's ugly face, which would be a definite improvement in this case. But in order to clean his cut, she would need water and she was stuck in the middle of nowhere and not even a puddle was in sight. Her throat felt parched and her mouth was like a desert. She needed a drink badly.

She kicked a nearby rock in frustration. The day had started out alright, but was now steadily getting worse. First, she got sexually assaulted by Malfoy's stupid ferret lips, then she had to play healer to stop his bleeding, now she had to hunt for water.

Ginny trudged off reluctantly, only putting a half-hearted attempt at trying to remember where Draco was. If she could find him after getting water, fine. If not, too bad. She was getting sick of this life saving thing. It wasn't like he was going to appreciate it after he woke up anyways. He would probably bash her head against a boulder in a furious attempt at revenge. His father was a Death Eater with so many connections that Aurors were probably rescuing him as she walked and Healers from St. Mungos were probably using their best potions to revive his evil mind.

Ginny seemed to be going in circles, tree after tree and rock after rock looked exactly the same. This was hopeless. She picked up another rock.

_I seriously need to stop this, this rock throwing fetish is going to get me in trouble some day._

She threw the rock using all her energy at a bush surrounded by a thick mass of trees. It sailed past the bush and landed with a splashing sound. Splashing. Rock hitting dirt doesn't make any splashing noises, however, a rock hitting water will. Ginny's parched throat and sandpaper lips urged her feet and legs forward as fast as they possibly can. In less than a quarter of a minute, she saw the most beautiful sight in the world: water.

It wasn't a wide river or anything, just a medium sized stream that was wide enough to wade in, but too small for any type of raft to travel in it without getting stuck. The water looked relatively clean, she could see the bottom, which seemed to be sand and mud. But she was so thirsty that she didn't really care. She scooped up the water with her hands and felt it rush down her throat and cool it delightfully. She immediately felt energized, awake, and cool. She was about to lounge around the area, but she remembered something: Malfoy, probably still unconscious, lying in the shade in the middle of nowhere.

She seriously should leave him there. He deserved to suffer, he's just leeching off the world by living. He probably never did anything for anyone in his sixteen years of existence. The only possible contribution that Malfoy had probably made was to add misery and suffering to everyone else.

Ginny glanced up abruptly in the middle of her murderous thoughts. Here she was, thinking of reasons why Malfoy doesn't deserve to be helped, yet she was dipping her sleeves in the water to soak it up and carry it back to him. She slapped her forehead hard in frustration.

_Why do I have to be so softhearted?_

Draco Malfoy laid in the dirt floor straining to keep his eyes open. His eyelids were in pain. His head was in pain. He felt like someone had taken a club and battered it repeatedly against his skull. His mouth felt like glue and his throat was on fire. All he could see was a blur of blue and white.

_Am I dead? If I am, how come the view is great, but I feel crappy? I hope the devil comes soon to collect my soul or something._

Suddenly, another color came into sight. It was read. He could only see a fuzzy image of a pair of lips. Luscious and strawberry lips moving, coming closer to him. The lips moved almost directly over his eyes, he felt something nice and cool on his forehead and then some pressure. His head immediately felt better. Then, he felt cool liquid being splashed onto his face.

_Maybe its not the devil, its an angel. An angel with damn sexy lips._

The lips moved until he felt them touching his, he felt his thirst subside. For a few seconds, his vision seemed to have cleared and he saw a mane of luxurious red hair that tickled his nose when it brushed against it. He could now see that the lips were on a beautiful oval face, complete with glassy caramel eyes.

_Must be my lucky day, an angel's got the hots for me today. I knew it! Nobody can resist my Malfoy charms._

He waited for the angel to kiss him again, but his vision began to blur again and he once again felt like he was floating and floating on a fluffy cloud…


	4. Drama Before Breakfast

-1Chapter 4

Draco was floating, floating on something weightless and soft. Then something seemed to be tickling his face. He wanted to brush it away with his hand, but it was too heavy. There was more tickling. It was getting kind of irritating now, who was doing this? Maybe it was one of those annoying House Elves. Can't they just use an alarm clock?

"Stop doing that," he mumbled in his sleep. Maybe turning over would help. But it felt too nice lying on his back to turn over. After much whimpering and groaning in his sleep, he lifted his arm to brush his cheek. There was nothing there. A few moments later, something was tickling his arm.

_As long as its not touching my face._

He resumed sleeping with the floating sensation, but then he realized he had to go to the bathroom.

_Take a leak, punch whoever's tickling me, then back to sleep._

He grudgingly forced his eyelids up and closed them back again when a sharp blast of light almost seemed to jab his pupils.

_Curtains, idiots! What do you have against curtains!_

He opened his eyes once again when his bladder urged him to wake up and found himself not staring at his lavishly furnished bedroom at Malfoy Manor, but at trees and dirt. There was nobody in sight. The tickling sensation was on his arm again. He looked down.

"Arghhh!" he jumped up and down and madly brushed his against the other and slammed his hand madly on the ground. It wasn't a House Elf that was tickling his face and arm, it was ants. Not one ant, but a group of twenty or so ants. All his life, he had lived in perfectly clean places with plenty of people to clean up after him. The dirtiest place he had ever been to was probably Knocturn Alley and he only stayed there for fifteen minutes. A big group of ants this is vulgar, horrid, gross, disgusting, simply unacceptable!

"GET-THE-BLOODY-HELL-OFF-OF-ME!" he yelled and rubbed his hand in the dirt, panting wildly from anger and disgust at having a group of insects use his body as a bridge to the other tree or something.

"Stop yelling," a soft voice mumbled behind him, "just five more minutes, mum. George takes forever in the bathroom anyways."

Whoever this was, they are going to face the full force of the Malfoy wrath. In the last five minutes, he had woken up to discover he was in the middle of some bloody forest with bugs crawling on him and somebody decides to call him their mother.

"I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER!" he turned around and yelled, spraying saliva over whoever it was.

"Relax, Ron. Nobody knows about the teddy bear," the voice continued mumbling. Draco looked down and saw Ginny Weasley lying on the dirt floor.

The sight of this red-headed girl brought back all of yesterday's events. How his failure to help his father please the Dark Lord by getting rid of Potter angered the elder Malfoy so much that he had banished his son to one of the family's vacationing homes. He remembered being hit by a rock. He raised his hand to touch his forehead, there was some sort of rag on it. He pulled it off and yelped as the scab from his forgotten wound was ripped off along with the rag. He threw it on the floor and stepped on it angrily as if blaming the pain on the rag. He looked down at the sleeping figure in front of him. To his surprise, Ginny simply turned over and continued sleeping. What kind of person was this? He makes a big racket yelling and screaming and she just turns over? He looked around at all the trees. He turned right, there were a whole bunch of trees. He turned left, there were a whole bunch of trees. All he remembered yesterday was that he was taunting the Weasleys and somehow he and Ginny fell off their broomsticks and landed here. But weren't they on the lake? His mind was blank and his brain felt like mush. There doesn't seem to be another human being here besides Ginny.

_Wait a minute, then who was the girl that kissed me yesterday?_

He definitely wanted to find that girl. She tended to him when he was in pain and dying of thirst and even gave him a kiss. The only girl he could see was Ginny and there was no way it could be her. She smacked him for accidentally touching her lips. There was no way she would willingly kiss him and he recoiled at the thought of being kissed while unconscious by a Weasley. It was equivalent to being sexually harassed. But there were matters more important then checking out girls to deal with right now, he needed to find a bathroom. He turned around to stare at a tree as if hoping that if he had enough persistence, it would transform into a washroom.

Unfortunately, nothing happened. He glanced down at the sleeping Ginny.

_No way, I'm not asking her for help in anything._

He really, really needed to go. If he couldn't find a bathroom soon, he would have to hop around squeezing his legs together like that idiotic Longbottom.

_Well, strictly I'm not asking her for help, I'm just asking a question._

He cleared his throat loudly.

"Weaslette?" he asked loudly. She turned back onto her back and was now lightly snoring.

_Fine, I'll be a damn polite gentleman._

"Weasley? Wake up!"

She was still sleeping. He needed to go badly. He looked down at her arm, here goes nothing.

"Wake up, Potter's in danger! The Dark Lord's got him!" he bent down and shook her arm wildly.

"Wha-? What's happening. Malfoy, why the hell are you touching me? Get your hands off!" Ginny pushed his hand off her arm and rubbed her eyes.

"Where's the bathroom?" he asked urgently, desperately hoping that she would have an answer.

"Bathroom? You idiot, we're in a forest. The only bathroom you'll find is the bushes," she rolled her eyes and said to him like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Bushes? That's so barbaric," he glanced at some nearby bushes in disgust.

"Well, your problem, not mine," she shrugged and began running her hand through her hair to untangle it.

He frowned a bit. He looked at the bushes, then at Ginny who was now humming pleasantly to herself. It sounded crazy, but that song reminded him of toilet training when he was a toddler. Not exactly the type of music for someone who is trying hard not to think about anything related to the washroom.

"I'm not going to look at you while you go. Some of us aren't perverted you know," she said as if reading his mind.

_To hell with sophistication! I'm going to wet myself if I keep on standing here like a sissy._

He turned abruptly and headed for the first cluster of bushes he saw, out of the corner of his eye, he saw an 'I told you so' look on Ginny's face.

He came back and saw her standing up and looking around. There was a stain of dirt running down her shirt when she laid sleeping on her side. He opened his mouth to ask what she was doing.

"I don't want to hear your toilet paper complaint," she cut him off before the sounds could come out of his mouth.

"I wasn't going to. Why the hell are you always snapping at me anyways?"

"In case you forgot, you were the one that tormented me the first day I met you."

"Where the hell are we?" he asked changing the subject. He didn't want to get on her bad side if she was the only other human in the area.

"I don't know. I'm trying to figure out where north is so we can find our way out," Draco felt better that she said 'we' instead of 'I'. It meant that he wasn't getting left behind. The Weasleys probably camped out in a forest instead of having a house due to their poverty. She should be good at this outdoor survival thing.

"Well is it working?" he asked. He was hungry, now he wished he ate that piece of pie for dessert yesterday.

"No, I can't remember what Charlie said. Something about the sun and light."

"Why are you here anyways?" he asked.

"Remember, you insulted my family. I chased after you, we fell here. I threw a rock at you-"

"What happened after that?"

"You passed out, so I stopped the bleeding on your head and gave you some water," she explained, looking at him as if he had amnesia.

"Nothing more? Did you see a really pretty girl walk past or anything?"

"We're stuck in the middle of nowhere and all you can think about is shagging?"

"No, that's not what I meant. I remembered seeing this pretty girl and she-"

"It's called dreaming," she quickly cut him off, "I'm hungry. We should look for some food or something. I don't want to starve before they find us."

He blinked at her.

"Food. We eat food," she said slowly and nodded at the same time as if she was teaching a toddler numbers.

"I know what food is," he said.

"Well get going, you go on that side, I'll go on this side," she said pointing him in opposite directions .

"What? What am I supposed to do?" he yelled to her retreating back.

"Collect anything edible you can find and bring it back here," she turned and left.

Draco's eyes darted from left to right. The forest seemed unnaturally quiet compared to civilization. The cluster of trees looked too dark and dangerous. What if he got lost in there and werewolves ripped his head off or something? The Hogwarts Forbidden Forest were out of bounds. Forbidden Forest and this forest, same thing. Forests are dangerous. No, he wasn't being a coward by not looking for food. He will sit here and wait for Ginny to come back. He nodded to himself as if reassuring himself that his male ego was not lost just because he wasn't willing to compromise his personal security by venturing into the dangerous forest.

Ginny let out a mischievous giggle once she was sure Draco wouldn't be able to hear her. She rescued him yesterday only because she was the one that threw a rock at him. There was no way she was going to put up with being around him. He was such a spoiled brat, he probably expected her to be his servant or something. Leaving him in the forest was a pretty mild form of revenge considering his father was the one that slipped her Tom Riddle's diary and Draco had taunted her all these years and insulted her family.

She walked along the trees wondering what kind of food she could get. She had gone camping a few times with her family, but they always brought food along so there was no need to look for food in the wild. Maybe she could pick berries? Use sticks and stones to hunt down birds? See if the stream from yesterday lead into the river and fish? Wait a minute, there were trees all around her and it was summer. They probably had fruits on them. All she had to do was climb the trees. She placed her hand on a lower branch and hoisted herself up. She placed her feet on a higher branch and climbed up, she reached her hands up for a higher branch.

"Plunk!"

Something fell to the floor, a thick swarming mass of bees immediately surged up towards her and enveloped her with stings. She tried to swat them away with her hands and lost balance and fell off the branch. She tried to stand up and run but her ankle was throbbing and the she couldn't see because she was covering her eyes to protect them from the bees' stings. She screamed in pain, but sobbed at the same time because she knew nobody could hear her.

Draco heard a sharp human scream coming from the forest. Who was it? There was another scream. Should he investigate? What if it was some animal eating up someone? If it was then he was definitely staying here. There was no way he was risking his life to investigate and play the hero like Potter would have done.

Another scream echoed out, sharper than before. Draco could feel the agony and pain from the scream. He winced as scream after scream vibrated in his mind, suddenly he recognized the voice and felt very cold. It was Ginny Weasley. Instinct drove him to run into the forest, but then he stopped. Why was he doing this? This was just Weaslette, an unworthy blood-traitor. Why risk his life to save hers? What if it was some big bear in there? He sat on the soft earth. What was his reason for doing this? What was there in it for him?

_The life debt._

That was a definitely a good reason. He didn't realize this before, but he was indebted to Ginny, in magic's deepest form. He passed out yesterday from all the bleeding from his head. He touched the scab. Ginny stopped the bleeding, she saved his life. If she died, the debt would be passed to her family. There was no way he was going to be indebted to a whole bunch of Weasels. If he saved her life this time, then they would be even! He nodded his head to himself. Yes, this was an excellent reason.

He ran in random directions following the direction of the screams and hoping that she wasn't getting attacked by a werewolf at the moment. He didn't feel like getting his cloak dirtier than it already was with the bugs crawling on it while he was sleeping and everything.

He finally saw Ginny lying at the foot on an oak tree being stung by bees. He let out a huge breath of relief when he saw it wasn't a huge bear attacking her. What the hell was she doing, why wasn't she running?

"Run, Weasley!" he yelled at her.

"Is it you Malfoy?" she yelled in a muffled voice.

"Don't just lie there and let them sting you!" he yelled at her. He needed some way to distract the bees without getting himself stung.

"My ankle, I think I broke it!" she yelled back.

_Oh shit, what now. _

All around him there were only trees, looks like there's only one way to do this. He took off his cloak, wondering how much of an idiot and hero-wannabe he looked like right now.

He ran up to her and smothered her with his cloak. The bees immediately swarmed him as well.

"Cover yourself with this and I'll carry you out of here!" he yelled through the buzz of the bees.

"Why should I trust you?" she asked. He couldn't believe it. She was going to get stung to death soon and all she could think about was that he was a Slytherin. Honestly, women!

"Because if you don't move soon, you're going to get yourself killed?" without waiting for her response, he grabbed her and placed her on his back.

"Hold on tight," he ran, as fast as he could in any random direction away from the bees. He was still ahead of them but he could hear their buzz.

"Do you know where you're going?" she asked with her voice muffled from his cloak over her body.

"I'm saving your life, just shut up," he was panicking wildly and had absolutely no idea whatsoever what he was doing and where he was going. All he knew was he had to run. He turned his head sharply from left to right. There were only bushes on the sides of him and if he decided to somehow roll over them, the bees would have swarmed them both to death by the time he got to the other side. Forward was a stream.

_Fifty years later, I will look back and this will be a fond childhood memory. Right…_

"Take a deep breath."

"Wha-?"

He took a deep breath and jumped into the stream. The icy coolness of the water refreshed his perspiration soaked body. The bees wouldn't be able to swarm him if he was under water. He needed to stay under there as long as he could. When his lungs finally felt like they were going to explode, he shot of the water. No bees were in sight. He dragged his exhausted body back to land with Ginny still on his back. They laid on their backs panting wildly from exhaustion and dripping wet.

"I honestly can't believe you Malfoy. You saved my life by practically drowning me," she sat up and starting wringing the water out of her hair.

"All in a day's work before breakfas-"

"Does something look different to you?" Ginny cut him off before he finished his sentence.

A colorful toucan squawked in Draco's face before flying off to a nearby tree…


	5. Follow the Monkeys

-1Chapter 5

"Does something look different to you?" Ginny asked. A toucan squawked in Draco's face before flying away.

Draco choked back a sarcastic laugh. Even if you were blind, it would look different. Instead of evergreen pine trees and cool crisp air, they were now in some place with broad leafy trees and heavy, warm humid air.

"Obviously its different, are you blind or something?" he responded sarcastically. After the sarcastic feelings passed, he felt a sense of fear. How did they get here? Where were they? Are they still in the same place they landed? What if they accidentally somehow touched a Portkey and was now in the Amazon Rainforest or Africa or something like that? What if he never got to take a proper bath again? This couldn't be happening!

"Where are we?" Ginny asked the obvious question. If she felt lost earlier in the other forest, it was nothing compared to the feeling of drifting farther and farther away from civilization. She was dripping wet, but the warm air made it feel less cold, but her clothes were clinging uncomfortably to her body.

"I have no idea," he looked at the trees where the toucan had now disappeared out of sight. This place seemed so…noisy. Monkeys were squabbling while hanging off tree branches by their tails, frogs croaked, birds chirped. Every animal seemed to be having its own conversation. Draco looked back at Ginny and noticed she was completely soaked. Her hair hung around her head in rich red tresses. Her clothes were sticking to her skin and he could see the shape of her body. He couldn't see before since she was practically drowning in oversized clothes, but she was shaped like an hourglass. There were droplets of water flecked on her skin, the sun shone through them, illuminating her skin. He watched, mesmerized as each water droplet seemed to act like a crystal and he could see the colors of the rainbow on her creamy flesh.

Not that he thought she was pretty or anything, it was just the trick of the light that was making this image interesting. There was no way he would ever check out Weasley. _Never._

"Mal-_foy_? Are you still here?" Ginny said as she waved her hand up and down his face. She was exhausted, wet, and hungry. But the worst of all feelings she felt was guilt. The sight of Draco with beestings scattered on his face made her feel like something was squeezing her so tight that she couldn't breathe. The stings on his face were all her fault, because she tried to abandon him in the wild even though she knew that he wouldn't be able to survive on his own. He was a Slytherin, he was a Malfoy, but he was still a living being. If she had really wandered off far enough, he would have probably starved to death or something and she would be the one responsible for killing him. She had never been this horrible to another human being before in her life. Except the time that she was under Tom Riddle's spell and that left her traumatized for months.

"Shit, what do we do now?" Draco stood up and kicked a rock into the stream, his face contorted in defeat and anger, "We're going to die and rot away before anybody finds us." He felt lost, powerless, disoriented. He felt like Mother Nature was trying to put him down. He had no idea where he was. He felt so tired, so hungry, he just wanted to go back to sleep and hope that this was all just a dream

"We're going to die if you keep on acting like a prat! Nobody's here to save you, you're going to save yourself!" she stood up and shook him on the shoulders wincing when she put pressure on her sprained ankle. She wasn't sure why she was doing this. She knew that he was used to luxurious surroundings and felt like giving up. She knew that from all the hatred between their families, it would be more logical to just let him give up. But maybe it was because he just saved her life, maybe because she actually felt sorry for him, because he looked so vulnerable and lost, but she felt that she had to stop him from letting himself fall.

"Look at us, look at _you._ We're drenched in water and we have these damn sores on our faces. I'm going to kill myself out of embarrassment even if anybody sees us here!" he pushed her hands off his shoulders and stomped away angrily. He hated that look on her face, he hated the fact that she was probably feeling sorry for him or trying to motivate him and all that crap that those stupid big loving families like to do to each other. He didn't care, he didn't want that lovey dovey stuff that the Weasleys probably shoved down their kids throats.

"What the hell is wrong with you? One minute, you're being Mr. Bigshot Hero, next minute you're thinking about committing suicide because your ugly face got mauled by bees? I don't give a damn. If the _Daily Prophet_ walked in here right now and offered to take me out of here if they could get a picture of me for the headlines tomorrow, I'd do it without a second thought! We're talking about life and death here, what your face looks like doesn't matter if you don't make it out of here alive!" she snarled and panted heavily as she hobbled awkwardly to catch up with him. She wasn't looking at him like he was a Malfoy. She saw him as any other person in the street, there was a strong desire to help him. Maybe it was from the Weasley in her, telling her to help this pathetic looking boy.

"Don't lecture me Weasley. I'm not the one that lives in a pigsty, forgive me for having pride and dignity," he snapped and continued walking. He didn't know where he was going or where he wanted to go. He just knew he had to get away from this tomato head girl.

"Fine, go off and throw yourself off a bloody cliff, I don't even know why I bother trying to help you," she turned, feeling angry and stupid and hobbled the other way while a series of violent thoughts erupted in her mind, most of which involved destroying Malfoy's precious male anatomy.

Draco turned around to see her walk off. He didn't think this would be possible, but he felt bad. He felt bad for Ginny with her injured ankle and stings all over her face. She was a girl and looking at Pansy, he knew that girls cared about how they looked no matter what they said. Yet, she wasn't complaining. She was telling him to get off his arse and start living instead of brooding about his face. There was emotion behind her words beyond annoyance, there was genuine…care. Suddenly, there were emotions released that were welled up in him ever since he could remember, they were compelling him, telling him that all he needed to do was open his mouth and make some sort of noise and everything would be fine.

"Hey!" he called out, his Slytherin nature telling him to shut up while the other side of him was telling him to spit those damn words out.

"What now, asshole?" she asked menacingly, but nevertheless stopped in her tracks.

"I-I _apologize_ for what I just said and ask for your forgiveness," Draco phrased his words to try and get his meaning across without saying the 's' word that he said to his father and maybe Professor Snape. Actually, he wasn't sure why he was even apologizing. He shouldn't be caring anyways. He should be watching her walk away with a cold smile on his face.

"Your point?" she asked with her eyebrows raised, but she knew what he wanted to say. She wanted to hear him say that one word that he probably never used on someone around his own age.

"I…take back what I said before," he said, still avoiding that word.

"You mean you want to tell me that you're sorry?"

"NO!" his Slytherin side shouted before his other side could stop the word from coming out of his mouth. Ginny's lips pursed into a thin line.

"You idiot, the word 'apologize' is a fancy way of saying 'sorry.' Stop wasting my time, not all of us plan on committing suicide in the middle of nowhere."

She turned and once again started to walk away. Draco waited for her to turn around, he realized that she was just as stubborn and prideful as he was and if he didn't suck it up, he was going to end up dying of starvation. He had no idea how you were supposed to get food in the middle of a rainforest. All his life he had his food brought to him on a silver platter by House Elves.

"Fine, I'll say the 's' word!"

She continued walking.

"I'm…s-s…ore-y! There we go, I said it!"

"I _apologize_ but I don't like hanging around people that like to insult me randomly and then spit out foreign words to try and get me to forgive them," she turned her head to tell him before hobbling off again.

He ran up to her and stood in front of her to block her way.

"I already said the 's' word," he looked around and turned back to her with a more business-like approach as a sudden thought struck him, "look, you have nothing to lose if you work with me here. My father will send people to look for me. If they find us, they'll send you home too." He knew Ginny was an intelligent girl and would be able to see the advantages for her here.

"No."

"What the hell do you mean by no?"

"I won't work with you," she said simply, her voice crisp and decisive.

"You're a fool Weasley. Not only do you live in a pigsty with second hand robes, your brain is second handed as well? Maybe your family only has enough money to have one brain and everybody gets a piece? Are you insane, woman? Any girl with eyes would say yes. Here I am, _offering_ you a chance to stay beside me for Merlin knows how long and you _reject_ my offer!" he ended his rant with a death glare at the red-headed girl who didn't look intimidated at all.

"And you're wondering _why_ I'm saying no? How the hell do you think I'm going to stand being around your bloody 'I'm the best because I'm Malfoy' attitude twenty-four hours a day without either murdering you in your sleep or committing suicide? In case your skull is too thick to notice, not everybody wants to shag you! Nobody cares how many girls you've slept with! You think it's so _cool_ walking around bragging to everyone, I think its pathetic," she raised her chin up as if challenging him to a fight.

"Don't hobble around thinking that you're going to be a lot better off without me, you won't be able to survive alone!"

"Like you can? Do you honestly think wild animals are going to care whether you're a Malfoy or not before eating you for an afternoon snack?"

"So you're saying you can survive better than me in the wild?"

"Captain Obvious to the rescue!"

"Prove it."

"Prove it?"

"Yeah, we stick together. We take turns getting the food and shelter and all that crap every other day. We'll see who's the best."

"You know you're going to lose for sure."

"No, I'm not."

"Fine, if you're so confident, lets bet," she challenged.

His technique was working. The little Weaslette was easy to manipulate. She and those idiotic Gryffindors, always with their _courage_ to prove. What idiots. A few words here and there and she was already falling for his trap, but was it worth it to bet? He knew he would lose, but losing is nothing compared to dying here. However, knowing the damn tomato-head, she was going to humiliate him in public if he lost and they ever got out of here. But who says Slytherins keep their word?

"What happens if I turn out to be better?"

"I'll owe you a favor," she stopped when she realized what he could possibly be thinking, "not shagging or any physical contact, you pervert!"

"I wasn't thinking that, who has the dirty mind now?"

"Shut up, I saw that look on your face!"

"Dirty minds see dirty things."

"If I turn out to be a better, I can make you do whatever I want."

"Aha! So you do want to shag me! Admit it, every girl wants a piece of me!"

"No shagging! Shagging isn't involved in our bet."

"And they say us blokes are the randy ones."

"Shut up, are we betting or not? Or are you too scared? Wanna back out or something?"

"Who says I'm scared, here, we're shaking on it!" he stuck his hand out and Ginny grabbed it and squeezed it so hard, it felt like she was trying to crumble the bones in his hands.

"Deal."

"Deal," she marveled at how easy it was to get Malfoy to agree to this. After they got back to Hogwarts, she could have lots of fun paying him back for all those years of being insulted by him. Maybe she could get him to dress up as a girl and parade around the Great Hall? Confess his undying love to Snape? Ron was in his class, he could tell her all about it.

_Ah, so many possible ways of revenge…_

"You're starting today, start surviving or preaching whatever bullshit you have to tell me about 'roughing it out'?" his voice snapped her out of her daydream.

"Okay, lets start with the obvious, getting food."

"Correction, _you_ start with the obvious by getting food. It's your day to prove you're better at surviving. I'll be waiting right over here," he sat down and smirked, "you can't prove you're better, if I'm helping you. You can forfeit if you want, I already have some brilliant plans you can help me with. You can't back out of the bet without ruining that _noble_ reputation of Gryffindor now, can you?"

The lioness in Ginny roared for the murder of Malfoy right on the spot. Who cares if he saved her life, she saved his yesterday, they were even. But she did make a bet, and it was one of those unofficial rules of being a Weasley: you always keep your word when making bets. Backing out is for Slytherins.

"Fine, tomorrow's your turn," she scowled and glared menacingly at him, "bastard," she added when she turned around.

"Tsk, tsk. Such language, I'm sure decent language is written somewhere in the handbook of nobility or whatever you Gryffindors follow."

"I hope you have fun feeding the mosquitoes, you deserve it," she tried her best to walk away looking menacing but failed due to the fact that she had to drag her injured foot along.

_Feed the mosquitoes? Whatever that's supposed to mean, hormonal females are always babbling about nonsense anyways. I mean look at McGonagall, always telling us that Transfiguation is important._

Draco stared at a monkey who was swinging from tree to tree. It suddenly turned and scowled at him. He stood up and charged in the direction of the monkey, once he was near the tree, he saw that the monkey was actually pretty high up.

"Look at me, I'm a stupid monkey, oo ah oo," he pretended to imitate the monkey who now looked like Draco as the enemy and must be destroyed, it made some sort of hissing noise and soon other monkeys arrived at the spot.

"I'm a Malfoy, pureblood Slytherin, I'm not afraid of you little hairy chickens," he yelled and picked up a fallen fruit from the floor, but dropped it quickly and shuddered when he saw the centipede on it.

The monkeys all had fruit in their hands, they leaned forward looking like warriors about to attack.

"Oh no you don't, you little-" he never got to finish his sentence because at the moment, the monkeys began pelting him with the fruits in their hands. Unfortunately for him, most of the fruits were unripe and hard, which meant they were as hard as rocks. He immediately ran, but even some of the ripe fruits were dangerous, because the core was hard and the fruit turned to mush when it hit him.

The monkeys 'retreated' when they saw he had left what apparently was their territory.

"I'll come back for revenge, you just see!" he yelled, but quickly hid behind a tree when he saw one of the monkeys turn their head around.

_Loving wildlife my ass, I knew fruits were bad for you, look at those stupid monkeys!_

Oh great, now he can't sit by the river since those damn monkeys might return. (No, he wasn't scared of them, he was just being…friendly to them, yes. Just in case he couldn't stop himself from getting revenge.) He looked around and shrugged, it looked like he could only sit down here where he could see the river when Ginny returned with the food. He didn't even have to pick a shaded spot, it was all shaded except for a few patches of sunlight that managed to sneak through the thick canopy of the forest.

Some birds squawked over head. Animals seemed to be talking to each other in a mix of chirping, cooing, and squeaking. Instead of being amazed by the orchestra of nature, Draco was downright annoyed. Don't these animals ever shut up?

His face itched so he scratched it. But it seemed that the more he scratched, the more it itched. Then his hand started itching and soon it seemed like he was itching all over and there was a really annoying buzz that was constantly surrounding him.

Suddenly, he heard a thump behind him and a very happy Ginny Weasley was running in his direction with a big smile on her face, but she wasn't shouting his name.

"Fred!"


	6. More Than A Food Fight

-1Chapter 6

Draco barely had time to process and question why exactly his hand was making contact with a hairy monkey's behind when he found himself the target of fruit pelting of many other monkeys.

"WEASLEY!" he screamed while trying to climb down the tree and escape the monkeys without getting hit by fruits or falling thirty feet down to the ground.

"What did you do? All the fruits are falling down!" she shouted happily and began picking the fruits off the ground.

"Is this why you wanted me to climb that damn tree? This is your stupid plan, isn't it? Team up with those blasted monkeys, humiliate me, and get food at the same time?" he yelled at her once he was on the ground, the monkeys were still aiming at him and his clothes were splotched with fruit mush and leaves from the trees. He looked rugged. The dirt stains cancelled out the dainty vainness of the hair gel and he looked…more like a man.

_What am I doing? I am not checking out Malfoy!_

"I don't even know what happened! I'm just walking in circles one minute and the next thing I know, you're screaming at me and fruits start falling off trees," she stared at him with her eyebrows raised.

He inhaled sharply and began his full blown rant, "I was climbing that bloody tree when you distracted me with your talking and instead of grabbing a branch, I…I accidentally" he took a deep breath at this point and glared at her eyes, trying to stare her down, "I accidentally, touched…" his lips were pursed together and he adopted an expression of someone extremely constipated as he struggled to rant about his embarrassing experience, "I touched…a monkey!"

"So?" she asked, not really understanding why exactly he was so worked up about coming in contact with a monkey, seeing that he was climbing the same tree as them anyways.

"I…I didn't just touch a monkey, I-" he scrunched up his face as he tried to form the words without his face turning red like a tomato.

"-snogged it?" she finished off with a humorous twinkle in her eyes.

"No, but almost just as bad," he said in an annoyed tone of voice, "I touched it…in a place I'd rather not talk about," he finished quickly and began picking up fruits off the ground.

"You touched it…there?" she asked with here eyes wide in a mix of astonishment and laughter.

He nodded grimly.

"Ew!" she exclaimed while dropping all her fruits in the process of laughing.

"Shut up, if you think about it this way, the monkey's…area might have touched those fruits you just held in your hands," he retorted stubbornly.

"That is one dirty thought! Why…would it be touching its…thing there?"

"What are you talking about? I touched the monkey's arse," he looked at her wondering what she was talking about before.

"Oh! I thought you mean…never mind," she blushed red and picked up the fruits she dropped on the floor.

"You didn't think it was…there, did you?" he asked, looking at her with his eyebrows raised and his eyes wide open.

"Stop staring at me like that! Its not my fault I thought you touched its you-know-what, you were implying that," she blushed red and gave him a playful push, he fell over and landed on a pile of fruits.

"Gross, I'm covered in fruit mush, this is all your fault!" he picked up a fruit from behind him and threw it at her, it hit her on the leg.

"Food fight!" she screamed and hobbled away from him while picking up fruits along the one and throwing blindly at him.

"Argh, I'll get you, you annoying little weasel!" he yelled like some kind of war cry and ran over to the tree where he saw strands of her red hair.

"Give up, ferret, you won't be able to find me!" she shouted back her response.

Draco walked silently to her hiding spot, fruit in one hand, the other hand covering his mouth, stifling his laughter.

"Says who?" he mashed the fruit in her face from behind and quickly ran away before she could attack him, unfortunately, not fast enough because he could immediately feel the wetness of mashed fruits against the back of his cloak. He immediately returned the ammunition (fruits) back over to her and heard the satisfaction of splotches, indicating they reached their target.

Draco felt slightly odd as he ran around laughing and throwing/dodging fruits. He felt light, airy, innocent…happy, like he was actually having fun, without any guilt on his mind. Was this what it felt like just to have nice, clean fun? Well, not literally clean since he was covered in bits of fruit, but fun without tormenting others? Fun that was not at other's expense?

All thoughts of food and enemy houses were forgotten as the two of them continued running around for the rest of the day, throwing food at each other.

The next day, Ginny decided that she would give fishing a try, since there were only two fruits leftover for breakfast this morning and they weren't exactly very tasty. Draco claimed that he 'had no intentions of doing what a common Muggle would do' and decided to stomach the fruits instead. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him eye her curiously while holding onto the wretched, half-eaten fruit in his hand. He actually wasn't so bad, now that they were alone in the middle of nowhere. In fact, they weren't in a very terrible place, the stream was quite nice and the water was so clean, she could see the reflection of the trees around them. But suddenly, the image of the trees seemed to disappear and was replaced by a scene with two people in it.

"Malfoy! Come quick!" Ginny's voice drifted over to him and he ran curiously to her voice with the disgusting fruit still clutched in his hand.

"What's going-" he asked but his words stopped at the shock of the scenery in front of him.

The sun shone brightly over the stream and shards of crystal seemed to be in place instead of water, but in those shards of crystals was the image of two people in a study. More precisely, his mother and father. He could actually hear the voices of his parents talking.

"Lucius, the House Elves said he hasn't been at the house for two days now," his mother told his father who was sitting opposite of her with a desk between the two of them.

"Your point?" he asked coldly as he tossed a quill onto his desk and eyed her with a business like expression.

"I think we should send some people to look for him," she replied and there was an ugly silence between them. The two of them looked more like they were in a business conference than two parents discussing the safety of their child.

"I think not," he picked the quill up and began twirling it around with his fingers.

"He could be in danger-"

"The boy needs to be punished, he needs to be taught what is expected of a Malfoy," he pursed his lips together, the fire from the fireplace reflected coldly in his eyes as he dared Narcissa to disagree with him, "we have a ball to attend tonight." he stared at her intently with a fixed look that allowed no disagreement.

There was more silence between them and the only sound that can be heard is the sound of flames licking the logs.

"Of course," Narcissa finally said, "I will be ready in thirty minutes," and she left the room.

"Plunk!" a rock hit the water and the image began to swirl and it became distorted as the echoes of Lucius' decision seemed to etch in Draco's skull as his trembling hand dropped the half eaten fruit on the floor. He looked beside him and saw that the rock was released from Ginny's hand. She stood beside him, looking firm and protective. Why she was doing this, he didn't know. But he didn't want her sympathy. He was a Malfoy, a Slytherin, he was better than her. He didn't need her protection and sympathy.

He wanted to run, he needed to run, but before he could turn around, Ginny reached out and grabbed his arm, her slender fingers gently squeezed his suddenly cold body and Draco felt his arm tingle and his stomach flip flop.

"I know what you're going to say, so don't say it and let go," he growled and shook off her hand.

But Ginny didn't tell him that she was sorry he had terrible parents, she simply said two words.

"Don't go."


	7. A Quivering Mass of Jelly

-1Chapter 7

Silence.

They say silence cuts like a knife plunging deep into a person's heart, with invisible blood and silent cries of pain inflicted upon the victim. But sometimes, silence could be a good thing. Like on this day, this hour, this minute, this second, in a patch of forest where two people sat three feet away not knowing what to say or what to do. Each sound made seemed to be magnified three thousand times and they sat propped up like statues in antique shops. In fact, it seemed that they were afraid of breathing too loud.

There was something within Ginny that changed when she thought of Draco. It was as if she had cleared away a murky layer of dust from her window and can now see what was outside. Underneath the layer of arrogance and cruelty there was an insecure little boy with his arms wrapped around himself crying silently to himself. There was no one to protect him in their embrace, nobody to wipe away his tears. Only two people that saw him as an heir, as another person to further glorify their name, nothing else.

She turned to face him and opened her mouth, but she couldn't find any words to say, so she ended her 'fish gasping for air due to being out of water' expression,' and turned to face the stream once again.

_Wait, stream…fish, would it work?_

Draco closed his eyes and for a moment, imagined himself floating away, following the rhythm of the water in the stream tripping over the smooth stones. From there, he would float into a river and eventually over a waterfall where the water ended in a peaceful yet vibrant pool of crystal clear water. From there, he would continue floating, following the routes of rivers and the currents of the ocean and never have to see his parents ever again. Never did he have a stronger urge to escape from his life of duty. Yet, never did he feel a stronger urge to stay. The question was: why? He was in the wild, wasn't he? This was his chance, he could escape and they could say he got lost and his body was never found.

Then why was he sitting here like an idiot? The only answer is the female sitting a few feet away from him. Why was he sitting like this anyways? Why wasn't he walking away? He could do whatever he wanted! This little Weaslette had no control over him, she couldn't make him stay, she couldn't make him shut up, and she definitely had no power to make him feel awkward like this. But for some unknown reason, it seemed that this was what exactly was happening. She said to him two simple words combined with one look from her soft brown eyes, he was rooted on the spot.

_Why Draco, why? Where is the Slytherin in you? Just walk away!_

He wiggled his feet around in the dirt, making a shallow hole. He urged his legs to push his body up so he could stand and move.

_Don't go…_

Ginny's words echoed back and he saw the same look in her eyes that was probably now permanently etched in his skull.

_Damn, damn, damn! Get a hold of yourself Draco, you're a man, remember that!_

No, he did not feel for her at all. There was nothing about her that made him feel…like a mass of quivering jelly. No, he did not feel strangely nervous in her presence. No, he did not feel all fluttery inside right now. No, his heart wasn't hammering against his ribs. No, he wasn't currently struggling to fight down the urge to blush.

It wasn't like he would go around _blushing_, with _dragonflies _in his _liver_, or whatever bullshit those cows like Pansy Parkinson keep on making up.

He was fine, perfectly fine. He will now walk off, away from Weasley and her pathetic existence into his glorious future off into the sunset.

Yes, that is exactly what he will do, he told himself, but before he moved at all, Ginny broke the silence.

"You want to walk away from me, don't you?" she asked softly, it was laced with a trace of a tremble, or maybe he was simply imagining it.

"No," Draco was surprised at his own response. He was supposed to throw an insult at her, not tell her that he didn't want to walk away from her.

Actually, did he want to walk away from her? She was no longer looking at him, but instead looking at the stream. Her eyes distant, doubting…afraid? Afraid that he would leave? Afraid that they will be stuck here forever? Afraid…of what?

"Why?" Ginny asked, her voice warm and rich with emotion, every syllable uttered struck Draco's heart in a way nothing else had ever done before.

What was happening to him? What was happening to her? Why didn't she want him to leave? Didn't they hate each other? Whatever the reason behind her actions, the fact that she was doing this made him feel all jelly-like, squishy, spongy, whatever the word was. This new found emotion to the situation made him feel euphoric yet tormented at the same time. What is this feeling? It was a mixture of content and uneasiness, serene and discomfited. It felt almost like brewing a potion and mixing the ingredients for the Draught of Depression and the Elixir of Euphoria together.

_Sounds like something Potter would drink regularly._

But he wasn't supposed to feel all these things. He was only supposed to feel the desire to serve the Dark Lord and glorify the Malfoy name. He was supposed to think of ways to get out of here so he could prove to his father that he was Slytherin worthy. And in the midst of all of this he was probably supposed to think of some way to manipulate Ginny and use her against Potter.

But he wasn't thinking of this, instead he was thinking about Ginny Weasley as a person, as a girl. Her hair was red like the Common Room fires, her eyes brown like dark chocolate, her lips red like strawberries, lush, plump…utterly kissable….

_Malfoy, what the hell are you doing? This is Weasley! A dirty Weasel! Don't even think about touching her filthy lips!_

It seemed that she was radiating some sort of force that made him feel desire for her. Something must be wrong with him. It must have been those fruits that he ate yesterday, yes, it must have been some kind of poison in them that was slowly working his way into his body and was now slowly killing him. Yes, exactly, only people who were inches from death could possibly be experience such bizarre emotions.

"Lets go fishing," she suggested all of a sudden in what she hoped was a casual voice. She knew that they had to get up and move and stop dwelling on the awkwardness that formed between them. But there was a part of her that really wanted to discuss with Draco about what exactly was the image. Was it some sort of mirage? An illusion? Did they both see the same thing?

"You're insane," he looked at her as if she was a dancing frog.

"Ever fished?" she asked, ignoring his comment.

"No, but that's not the point-"

"So you're scared of being eaten by fishes or something?"

"No, I-"

"Too dainty to touch anything uncooked?"

"I didn't say-"

"Scared of," she made a melodramatic gasping sound at this point, "monsters in the stream."

"Honestly, woman, do you have any thoughts other than dirty ones? The Slytherin Common Room's under the lake, you would think that after living at Hogwarts for five years, I would be used to that. You want to challenge me to fishing, fine. I'll do it," he said this all in one breath and saw that Ginny was now grinning broadly.

"Contrary to your beliefs, my mind only has clean thoughts."

A few moments later when Draco realized what he just agreed to, he mentally kicked himself.

_I can't believe I fell for that, I should have seen that one coming._

"Wait here," she stood up excitingly and hopped towards the forest.

"What makes you think I'll stay?" he shouted as she entered the patch of forest.

"The fact that you're asking me this question. Don't be a baby, fishing's fun," she replied and disappeared into the dense formation of trees.

Now that he was alone, Draco felt a little uneasy. As strange as it sounded, even though Draco and Ginny were enemies and just moments before, he felt like running, he found her presence comforting. There was something about her…bubbly wasn't exactly the word to describe it, she just seemed to give off some sort of energy that made him feel safe and at ease with himself.

_What are you doing, Draco? Why are you turning into a pile of mush? Just because Weasley isn't here doesn't mean you're the least bit affected by it. In fact, you like it that she's not here being all…Weasley-like._

He groaned and tilted his body back until he was laying on the ground. He was acting exactly like an emotional and hormonally challenged idiot, like all those Gryffindors out there with their tomato cheeks and greasy, sweaty palms. Not that he ever _touched _one of them before, besides Ginny.

_Well, she's different, she's prettier and more… STOP DRACO! Stop thinking about Weasley like that! STOP! STOP! STOP!_

He was hitting head against the ground while trying to get all thoughts of Ginny out of his head, but the more he tried, the more her image, her voice, her essence, her aura…there was just something about her that stayed on his mind.

_Must…stop…self…from…bashing…head…against…ground!_

"Malfoy, what are you doing?" Ginny eyed him curiously with her eyebrows raised.

"I-I…" Draco lifted his head up and surveyed his surroundings for a reasonable excuse to be damaging his beautiful golden head by ramming it repeatedly against the dirt ground.

"You…?" she waited expectedly for an answer.

"I…I-I…"he continued repeating the same word while thinking of an excuse and trying hard not to stare at Ginny at the same time.

"Are you sure you're okay? It can't be good for your brain to hit your head against the ground over and over again," she said in what Draco happily noted, a concerned tone.

_What? Did I just say to myself that I want her to think about me? Honestly, Malfoy, you should go jump off a bridge or something! What the hell is wrong with you these days?_

_There's no bridges in the wild, idiot._

_Number two item on agenda: must stop talking to myself._

"Hello?" she waved her hand up and down Draco's face.

"What?" he woke from his conversation with himself and saw Ginny's face inches from him with a makeshift fishing pole in each hand.

"If you're finished with your doll impersonation, I thought you might want to start catching your dinner," she handed him a stick with a piece of cloth tied to one end.

"You call this a fishing pole?" he looked sceptically at the makeshift tool.

"You call this a face?" she retorted, "and its not like you've even seen a real fishing pole before."

"Someone's touchy," he remarked, "how do you use this thing anyways?"

"Stand up, take the pole, swing it back and whack it hard into the water like this," she demonstrated.

Draco tried to do the same arm movement that she did moments before, but somehow the cloth strip ended up whacking his face. Ginny snorted and tried hide it by clearing her throat. Draco tried again and this time, the cloth rope twisted itself into a knot. Draco tried to keep his 'I know what I'm doing expression' on his face when in his mind he was more in a 'How in Merlin's name do you work this blasted thing' mode. He struggled to loosen the knot, but it seemed that the more he tried to untangle it, the more tangled it got and soon his face was turning maroon from frustration and another curious feeling. All of a sudden, he felt embarrassed that he was making a fool of himself in front of Ginny, which didn't make sense, because it wasn't as if he _liked_ her or anything. In fact, the very idea was absolutely preposterous, absurd, unimaginable, incomprehensible, simply…too odd for words.

_I mean, the only reason why I think the blood is rushing to my fine, pureblood aristocratic features is that I'm embarrassing myself in front of my enemy, right?_

"Here, let me do it," she took the knot from his hands and wiggled it gently. In less than a minute, she had the knot untangled and the cloth back to the way it was, except a little wrinkled.

"Thanks," Draco said as he accepted the useable fishing pole, impressed with her skill and patience with knot detangling, but after he realized what he said, his eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. Did he, Malfoy, just _thank_ someone? In his life, he had only thanked a total of three people: his father, mother, and Professor Snape. He had never, ever thanked a peer for anything. Even after Marcus Flint caught him when he fell off his broom during Qudditch practice, he only grunted at him when he regained consciousness. Ginny seemed surprised as well, her hand froze as she handed the fishing pole back to him and as they both remained still in shock, their hands were touching and he felt a slight tingle from the warmth of her hand.

_Behold, the real meaning of 'losing your marbles'… Malfoy, Malfoy! Stop talking to yourself you bloody fool! You're going to look like an idiot in front of…wait, it doesn't matter, does it? I mean, its not like there's someone really important that I need to impress right now…_

"I think we better get started if we want to get anything to eat today," she jerked her hand back awkwardly and he drew his hand back slowly and resumed attempting to actually get started with fishing.

After another forty-five minutes of struggle, Ginny couldn't resist but show him the right way to do it.

"You're swinging it the wrong way," she placed her hand over his and held onto the fishing pole, "hold it above your head and push it towards the water in one swift, smooth motion," the pole was finally placed properly into the water, and Ginny noticed that Draco had very nice hands. It wasn't nice as in smooth and soft like a girl's, they were strong and a little rough, the type of hand that would make you feel safe and loved as you held onto it, both of you walking along a beach with the setting sun as the background canvas…

_What are you doing, Weasley? This is Malfoy, the enemy!_

"What do we do now?" he asked, holding onto the pole and feeling very childish and idiotic.

"We sit, wait, and talk while waiting for a fish to come along and fall into our trap," she sat down and he sat beside her.

"So, what's your favourite colour?" Draco winced when he heard how stupid it sounded out loud. Just how bizarre was this? He, the Slytherin Prince, the Prince charming in the dreams of over three quarters of the female population, was having trouble starting a conversation with a girl. The even more bizarre point in this was that he didn't even know why he was trying to start a conversation with her in the first place.

Ginny blinked for a few seconds as if trying to figure out whether or not he really did say those words before replying.

"Well I don't really know, I think there's something beautiful about every colour. Like even yucky colours like brown. You can have it reminding you of dirt or you can have it reminding you of a cabin with a happy family in it or the trunk of a big tree."

"But there has to be a colour out there that's too ugly to be called beautiful, I mean, there's nothing pretty about the colour of barf."

"Well, if you have to be a pessimist about it…"

The two of them went on and on. One topic lead to the next and spurred on discussion and arguments. They talked about everything from the best flavour of ice cream to whether or not Mrs. Norris is really a female cat. Soon, Draco found that Ginny was easy to talk to and in front of her, he didn't have to pretend to be a snob or have to bully people to be accepted. Even when they argued, it was light and humorous, no violence and for once, he felt that it was okay to give in to an argument. As the conversation went on, Draco saw Ginny in a whole new light. She was more than Weaslette, she was more than one of Hogwarts' students, she was more than a Gryffindor girl…

"Shit!" Ginny suddenly interrupted and pulled her line out of the water.

"What?" Draco snapped out of his daydreaming world and turned to her.

"No wonder we weren't catching any fish, we forgot the bait!" she took the line out of the water and pouted unintentionally.

But the funny thing was that Draco found he really wasn't that disappointed that they didn't catch any fish, because he knew he found something more valuable and important than fish, he found a friend in Ginny Weasley.


	8. It Must Be Love

-1Chapter 8

"We forgot the bait," Ginny pulled her line out of the water and flopped it down beside her.

"What now?" he asked pulling his line out as well.

"Looks like we're not having dinner tonight," she said in a disappointed and slightly apologetic voice.

"Oh well, I'm not that hungry anyways," Draco assured her, and was it her imagination or did he seem to be moving closer to her?

In reality, Draco was hungry enough to devour an extremely large cow, but he wasn't going to tell her that since she looked so dispirited over her failed fishing attempt. Of course he wasn't feeling like he needed to see her smiling or anything. How would that benefit him anyways? Besides, whenever she was smiling, it made his heart do that drumbeat thing. She must be spreading some sort of Weasley virus to him, Malfoys don't have their hearts beating irregularly unless they were interrogated by the Dark Lord. On the other hand, they seemed to have created some sort of semi-friendship bond. Maybe friends were supposed to do nice things to each other.

Just then, Draco's stomach growled embarrassingly and Ginny raised her eyebrows.

"Your stomach never lies," she said with a smile that just made Draco's breath catch in his throat.

_I'm just hungry that's all, I'm just so hungry that my throat is forcing air in my stomach to feed it…yeah, that's right._

There was something about that white lie that Draco just told which made Ginny blush as red as her hair. He could have blamed her for her forgetfulness in forgetting the bait, but instead he decided to lie to spare her feelings. It was so unnatural of Draco to do something nice that it made Ginny feel very…flattered? No, no, not flattered. Its not like she had any feelings for him other than hatred and maybe some empathy. She was pretty sure that the relationship between Draco and her was still enemies and would remain that way for all eternity.

"Damn mosquitoes," he slapped his arm in an attempt to hide his previous action of kindness.

"Its going to get worse tonight, unless we stay up tending a fire or we build some kind of tent to keep them out," she waved the mosquitoes away from her face and her fingertips brushed lightly across Draco's firm and muscular chest. She let out a gasp of surprise that she covered up with a cough. It was the feel of those muscles underneath the thin cloak, the feel of his heartbeat just at his fingertips, his skin underneath his shirt that was waiting to be touched, the sheer exhilaration of the thought was enough to ignite a flame within her that burned with a red hot intensity.

_What am I doing? What am I thinking? Am I really perverted like Malfoy's been telling me all along? I'm thinking of things like that about…him!_

Her face felt as hot as a piece of hot iron and if someone cracked an egg over her face right now, it would probably be cooked through.

_I have to snap out of this, what am I doing? I'm a Weasley, I can't think about a Malfoy like that! On the other hand…he does seem a lot nicer these days…_

"Weasley? Are you even listening to me?" he demanded and pretended to ignore her blushing red face. Was she blushing because of him? The thought of that was causing his face to turn pink as well.

_This is just great, we can sit here all day and have a blush-fest. Wait a minute, I wasn't blushing! How absurd, me, Draco Malfoy, Slytherin Prince, blush?_

"Yeah, I was listening," she answered a little too quickly to be telling the truth. She noticed Draco's cheeks were starting to looked tinted pink which made him look more human as opposed to a vampire with blonde hair.

"So what did I just say while you were busy being a blushing beauty? Or were you just having dirty thoughts?" he asked with a playful smirk on his face.

Did he just call her beautiful? Was blushing beauty some sort of hidden code for 'I like you and I want you?'. But of course, if he meant that, she should feel scared and run away, right? Would she do that?

"I wasn't _blushing_ and I wasn't having perverted thoughts!" she insisted and was responded with Draco's laugh. He noticed that her pink cheeks made her flaming red hair stand out even more. He thought she looked especially cute like that.

_Cute? When did I ever use 'cute' to describe a girl? Sexy and hot maybe, but cute?_

"Right, you were merely imitating a ripe tomato," he laughed again and Ginny noticed that his laugh was actually quite boyish compared to his voice when it wasn't embedded with cruelty.

_Well, maybe she isn't exactly just any other girl, after all she did put up with me for four days now without murdering me or sucking up to me._

"Its getting hot, I've been baking in the sun for over two hours, I'm going to go get some wood to build a tent or something," she got up to avoid his teasing and limped to the same area where she got wood for the fishing poles.

"Is your foot okay?" he asked when he saw her limping. It seemed to be an instinctive question to ask when he saw her like that.

"I'm fine," she said with clenched teeth as she tried to put weight on her injured foot.

"So the whole jaw clenching thing is your way of smiling?" he asked cheekily, not able to resist the temptation of teasing her so he could see her blush or get angry. She seemed to look even more beautiful when she got red in the face. But he did notice her pained expression and felt a sudden desire to end her pain.

"Well, would you feel better about it if I screamed at the top of my lungs right now and puncture your eardrums in the process?" she retorted and he stopped her hobbling and this gentle gesture made Ginny's heart pound wildly against her ribs. It was the same way she felt when Harry arrived at her house back when she was eleven, but this time it was different. This time there was a deeper feeling involved when her cheek made brief contact against thinly covered chest as he stepped in front of her.

"Maybe you should stop moving it around in case you make it worse," he put his hand lightly on her shoulder to gently sit her down on the ground.

"I guess my foot would be okay, but we would both starve to death and be bitten to death by mosquitoes," she moved to stand up and he held her down firmly to stop her from moving, but tenderly at the same time as he squeezed her shoulder in a way he had never done before. He was feeling the need to protect her, the need to help her.

"I can get food and I can build a shelter and you can rest here," he reassured her and she responded with an extremely doubtful expression on her face.

"You've never even set up a tent before, have you?"

"How hard can it be?" he responded confidently, in his mind however, he was imagining heaping twigs into a pile and somehow they magically arrange themselves into a bungalow formation.

"Basically, it would be like rescuing drowning people from a lake when you don't know how to swim."

"Easy, throw them a piece of driftwood to catch onto."

"That's not my point-"

"C'mon, trust me," he looked at her with his steel grey eyes in such a determined and surprisingly warm expression that she couldn't help but give in to his suggestion.

"Fine, but if your tent collapses on us tonight, I'm blaming it on you."

Three hours, twenty four minutes, and five failed attempts at tent building later, Draco was now staring at the heap of branches as if they were the enemy. He noticed Ginny's amused by admiring stare and the smile that tugged on the corner of her lips. She was daring him to ask her for help, but he wouldn't do it. She was teasing him with that look, the half flirtatious, half daring smile and he was responding back with his determined and stubborn gaze.

Ginny was finding the entire situation absolutely hilarious, but kind of cute at the same time. She sat with her knees against her chest, admiring the determined expression on his face and the sweat that trickled from his forehead to his cheeks. Normally, this chivalrous behaviour of a boy telling her to let him do the work would have annoyed her immensely, but coming from Draco, it seemed so…sweet.

Being a Malfoy and living in a mansion and Hogwarts all his life, Draco had never built any type of architectural structure before and he looked very comical and pitiful, holding onto a snapped branch with the forlorn expression of a little boy who dropped his ice cream on the floor that Ginny couldn't help but stepping in to help.

"Think about where to drive the main supporting poles in first," she suggested and Draco stared at her blankly as if she just spoke Greek to him, "just let me do it," she decided after a horrible mental image of a tent created by Draco collapsed on the two of them in the middle of the night.

"No, I can handle it-"

"Take that branch over there and bring it to me."

"Hey-"

"Fine, I'll do it then," she began limping over in which Draco gave in almost immediately to.

"Okay, okay, you stay here. I'm getting it," he walked over to where Ginny's desired branch laid while wondering why exactly did she seem to be having so much control over him and why he wasn't fighting it either.

She took the pole from his hand and began driving it into the dirt in front of her. Draco put his hands above hers and began pushing it down. Beads of sweat gathered on his forehead and his golden blonde hair. The sweat made his hand slippery and one firm push made his hand slide down until they touched Ginny's. Her breath hitched when she noticed the firm, contracted muscles of his hands came in contact with hers. Her lips suddenly felt very dry and when she licked them to moisten them, she noticed Draco looking at her, looking at her lips, with those normally steel-grey eyes now burning with intensity. She can see his lips part, maybe if she tip toed slightly she can slide her tongue in it and gently caress his lips…

_Snap out of it, snap out of it! Stop thinking about him like that!_

As they pushed the pole in deeper, Draco's hands continued sliding until they covered Ginny's, but he seemed to not notice as his mind was on other things, or in better words, on someone else.

He noticed how she bit her bottom lip in determination as she tensed up her arm muscles and pushed the pole in the ground. Her face was sun kissed and slightly tanned with a hint of pink. Her eyes, brown like dark chocolate, and those lips, those lips, moving and tempting him…

"I-I think we've driven this branch deep enough into the ground," Ginny snapped out of her trance, her eyes darted to where his hand were clasping hers on the branch and basking in the luxurious feeling of his hands holding onto hers.

"Oh…did….do you want me to get the other ones too?" he asked suddenly feeling very self conscious about where his hands were touching hers. He quickly removed them, noting how soft and small they were. Did she think he was perverted by touching her hand? Did she think he was expressing some sort of male dominant view by covering her hand? What must she think of him? Why in the world was he caring anyways? He practically had a waiting list of girls waiting to get in bed with him, why did he have to act like a fool in front of this one?

On the other hand, with a reputation like his, no girl would want to be in a relationship with him. Especially not a girl like Ginny Weasley. The thought saddened him and stayed on his mind as he took off his cloak to cover the tent

Draco felt surprisingly comfortable as he laid in this makeshift tent, he could feel Ginny's warm body next to his in the cramped space. Half groggy, he was about to turn his body and switch to sleeping on his side when he felt Ginny move. Thinking that she was just turning over in her sleep, he ignored and continued letting his mind drift between the state of consciousness and unconsciousness. After a couple of minutes, he sensed something was wrong. He turned around to his other side and reached his hand out over to the side where Ginny was sleeping, nothing was there. He opened his eyes and couldn't see anything because of the dark, but he could still feel the warmth from her body where she laid moments before.

He got up and left the tent, wondering where she was as the scent of damp earth filled his nostrils. With only the moon as light, he wandered around the area wanting to call out for her, but a part of him remembered sensing that Ginny moved on her own out of the tent, maybe she wanted to be left alone.

When his eyes finally adjusted to the lack of light, he found that he had approached a stream and just beyond the bushes was Ginny Weasley in the stream….naked.


	9. Dreaming of You

-1Chapter 9

Draco's breath caught in his throat. In the stream, surrounded by the plush velvetiness of darkness was Ginny Weasley, naked. All five feet two inches of her body was exposed to the moonlight and to the cool, crisp air around her. Draco's heart began hammering wildly in his chest as images of himself and Ginny…in the stream began flashing in his mind.

_Blink, you pervert, blink!_

Her slim arm brought a splash of water to her perfectly shaped body she threw her head back and her brilliant mane of red-gold hair glinted in the moonlight. She jumped up all of a sudden and then disappeared in the water with one fluid motion. He stepped forward, out of the shadows for a better look and Ginny suddenly shot out of the water like a cannon. Her wet hair hung on shoulders and water trickled down from her delicate oval face, down her perfectly shaped neck and flowed onto her bare chest. She giggled and repeated the same act again as if performing a dance, like the trance of a mermaid, she laughed with the voice of splashing water, like the chords of an organ, playing the music of heaven, lulling him, drawing him near her like the songs of the Sirens.

Maybe it was the drowsiness from waking up in the middle of the night or maybe it was the strange seductive atmosphere of the moonlight, but it seemed that with every movement Ginny was making, she was tempting him, daring him to come closer, to come out into the open. With her every movement, every glance, and every breath she took, she took his breath away as well. However, despite the fact that his mind seemed to shut down as he stared at her the same way a dieting person would stare at a piece of particularly delicious looking chocolate cake: why was she taking a bath in the middle of the night? She could always take a bath in the afternoon when its warm and sunny. It doesn't make sense to bathe in the middle of the night and have your hair soaking wet for the next couple of hours until the sun rises.

_Of course you idiot, she knew that you would be staring at her now like a peeping tom of she told you she was taking a bath during the day._

_Well, I'm staring at her like a peeping tom right now anyways…_

_I am not a peeping tom! I am a Malfoy, not some plebeian pervert! I was merely…investigating the source of noise and protecting her from wild animals that's all…_

_Why the hell am I protecting a Weasley then?_

He was so lost in his argument with himself that his foot stepped forward involuntarily and a branch snapped. It was as if all the sounds of nature from before have been turned off and the only sounds that could be heard were the echoes of the snapped branch. Draco saw Ginny turn around to investigate the noise. He quickly ran back to where their makeshift tent was. His heart still pounded with hormones racing through his blood. He didn't know how he managed to find the tent in the darkness but he thanked Merlin with all his heart that he didn't get lost and Ginny didn't catch him staring at her naked body.

He turned to his side when he heard Ginny come in and sleep beside him, he could still feel the wetness of her hair against the back of his neck, which instead of shocking him, it calmed him. It told him that what he saw was not a dream and yes, Ginny was beautiful, breathtaking and no, he reassured himself. No, she definitely did not see him. If she did, he would probably have his male parts removed in the most painful way possible at the moment instead of enjoying the sensation of her hair against his skin.

What Draco did not know was that Ginny saw a flash of blonde hair in the moonlight for a split second when Draco ran away…

_There was a strange rhythmic drumbeat in the background. Draco was lounging on a plushy red sofa. There were long, flowing, blanket sized pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling to the ground. Layer upon layer of smooth, luxurious green satin. A sweet floral scent wafted over, he saw a flash of red hair through the gaps between the fabric. He stood up and walked over to that spot to investigate who was there._

_A giggle, a laugh bubbled over to his left, he reached out his arm to push aside the layers of fabric and instead of feeling the cool satin slide through his fingertips, he felt the warmth of a human body. The body turned around and it was Ginny, her hair shimmered like the satin around her, framing her delicate oval face, her lips parted invitingly. She was wrapped around one of the layers of emerald satin fabric, she twirled around, in the beat of the drums, slowly unravelling the satin and revealing her tantalizing body. She reached behind her and pulled out an apple, placed her soft lips over it and took a bite, with each crunch, Draco felt his hormones surge and he could see a desire, a desperation glaze over the caramel-brown of Ginny's eyes. He leaned down and met her lips in a mixture of fire and ice, he could taste the apple on her lips as he devoured her kiss hungrily, his hands running over her body…_

_Crunch, crunch_

Draco woke up to the sound of someone eating an apple. He was enveloped in the fresh scent of grass as he turned to his side to find the tent he built yesterday with Ginny was gone. He sat up and rubbed his eyes blearily, his brain still too fuzzy to from sleep to feel confused. His muscles felt heavy and sore from the tent building yesterday. The sun was shining cheerfully, but something was wrong, something was different. There were no trees at all around him, just grass. He stood up and saw that he was on a hill. He looked down and saw miles and miles of gently rolling hills.

"Awake?" he turned around at Ginny's voice and he saw her sitting underneath an apple tree with an apple in her hand. Her hair still looked half damp and his strangely erotic dream flashed back to him, making him feel uncomfortably hot.

"Are we…wait, we weren't here yesterday! What happened to our tent?" Draco's mind snapped fully awake when the situation had finally sunk in.

"I think there's some sort of magic in this place. First it pulls us in, then it keeps on moving us from one place to another. We have to somehow break the spell in order to escape," Ginny said thoughtfully and there was a little furrow between her eyebrows.

_No, Draco, don't even say it, don't say the 'c' word!_

"I can't believe you!" he exclaimed when he saw her calmness despite his frantic head turning as if somehow trying to see beyond the endless patches of green and into the realm they were in yesterday.

"Believe what?" she asked looking at his unnaturally red face, "by the way, did you get burned really bad in the sun yesterday or something? You look really red."

"There's some bloody spell going on and you're just sitting here calmly eating your apple!" he said as he stomach growled embarrassingly, which caused his face to turn even redder.

_Damn it! What the hell is wrong with me today? Must stop the radish face…_

"Well, Mr. Genius, isn't it obvious? I think the spell might have something to do with our emotions. Haven't you noticed how every time we've been moved, there was strong emotion evolved? The first time, I was really mad and annoyed with you and you were probably feeling good about yourself for taunting me. The second time, I was feeling scared and you were feeling…" she was about to say _courageous_, but he would probably feel insulted to be described with a Gryffindor trait., "stupid for saving me but glad at the same time so I could stop screaming. This time….I don't know. Was there a particularly strong emotion you were feeling last night or yesterday?"

_Horny, turned on._

"No!" he replied a little too quickly, "are those apples poisonous?" he asked hoping to change the topic of emotions and keep it permanently changed.

"I'm eating it right now, so unless you want to wait three hours after I'm finished to see if I drop dead and froth at the mouth, I'll have to go with 'not poisonous'," she took another bite and the sound of the crunch turned Draco's face as red as the apple in Ginny's hand.

He turned around to hid his blushing, no, not _blushing_, merely filled with vitality, yes, filled with vitality, an excellent phrase. He continued reassuring himself, not noticing Ginny's curious stare as he clumsily climbed up the apple tree to pick one.

Draco returned with an apple in his hand and sat beside Ginny with an apple in his hand. There was a very awkward silence between them as Draco struggled to stop 'flushing with filled vitality' and Ginny sent little sideward glances over to Draco occasionally, just to see if he would mention anything odd that happened last night.

Draco could feel Ginny's stare on him, the only direction he could look at was forward, which was the stream. He stared at it so intently he could actually see the steam rising from brook and the colours of the rainbow in the screen of vapour, but the colours seemed to arrange themselves into fragments like a puzzle. He blinked several times to make sure his tired eyes weren't playing tricks on him. The fragments now turned into blobs that slowly resembled a picture. The shapes morphed into people and sounds were emitting from it. The scene suddenly sharpened and the sounds turned into voices of the people in the picture. Draco glanced sideways and saw that Ginny was watching the scene intently as well.

"Your baby sister's lost in the middle of nowhere and all you can think about is the bloody Minister of Magic!" Ron's angry voice screamed at Percy and the rest of the Weasley family was converged around the dinner table.

"Look, I'm not going to be much help anyways, this is an opportunity I can't-" Percy tried to explain but was cut off by George.

"Explain what? Explain why you're leaving the family at the time of need? Bill came from Egypt as soon as he hear!. Charlie apparated straight from Romania! Opportunities my arse!" George slammed his fist down onto the table, there was no sparkle of mischief in his eyes, only anger.

"We should contact the ministry anyways, I might as well head down there-"

"That's what owls are for. Stop making excuses for yourself, you don't want to be a Weasley. You think we're embarrassing you at that blasted ministry. You don't want to be _associated_ with the likes of us, right?" Fred continued off for George with equal fire behind his blue irises.

"Just listen-"

"We've always been here for you and Dumbledore made you _Head Boy_, now you turn on him, you turn on us? You turn your back on Ginny? Your baby sister? Do you remember what pact we made when she was born?" Charlie growled accusingly at Percy.

Percy sighed and seemed to recite the lines from memory.

"We as the Weasley brothers vow to protect Ginvera Molly Weasley from all evils from the world and no matter what happens, she must never be harmed."

"And you're breaking your promise? _A Weasley never turns his back on his family!_" Bill glared at Percy and if looks could kill, Percy would have been murdered ruthlessly over and over again.

"Percy-" Mr. Weasley's voice interrupted coldly, but before he could begin, Percy's temper finally interrupted.

"Is it my fault, I don't want to associate with a bunch of trouble makers? Dumbledore's losing his touch! He's not even in power anymore! You-Know-Who isn't going to come back! The only way we're going to make the Weasley name worth anything is if we cooperate with the Ministry!"

"Does some job at the ministry matter more than the life of your sister?" the softer feminine voice of Mrs. Weasley interrupted and she looked at her son with her eyes moist with tears.

"Mother, its not that simple-"

"Tell me, tell me just how hard is it to choose between the ministry and your sister," Mr. Weasley asked his son coldly.

"Father, you don't understand-"

"All I understand is this: either you stay here and help look for Ginny, or you can leave for the ministry and this home forever," he stated and his face showed that there was no other way out of this.

"Arthur," Mrs. Weasley's voice interrupted as the tears began falling out of her eyes at the thought of having her family torn apart.

"Molly, there's no other way," Mr. Weasley replied without looking at his wife so her tears wouldn't soften his resolve in his decision. For once, he was the dominant one in the family.

There were a few more moments of silence as the family stared expectantly at Percy. Of course he would decide to stay, of course he would apologize to them for being a git. Afterwards, they'll be a family again, just like always.

"I'm sorry, some day you'll understand," Percy threw some emerald green Floo Powder into the fireplace before shouting 'The Ministry of Magic' loudly and disappearing into the emerald flames.

The Weasley family stared at the fireplace in silence as if hoping that this was all a hoax and he would be popping out of the fireplace any minute now with a wide grin on his face explaining to them that he was merely trying to prove that the twins weren't the only ones capable of pulling a joke.

But that never happened and they were still staring, frozen to the spot as the image slowly became distorted and the shapes morphed back into blobs and soon it was just the screen of colour again.

"Its not real," Ginny finally broke the silence. This couldn't be happening. Sure, Percy was ambitious and wanted to rise high in the ministry to prove himself. But he would never choose the ministry over her safety. This must be some kind of illusion created by the Death Eaters or something to make her believe that her family was falling for that. Just because Percy was never an affectionate person doesn't mean that he didn't care whether or not she returned home safely.

"How do you know? How do you know its not real?" Draco asked before getting a glimpse of her face. Once he did, he immediately regretted the words that left his mouth. She looked shocked, stricken, and in denial.

"Because its not possible. Once a Weasley, always a Weasley. We never turn our backs on each other," she seemed to be explaining to herself more than to Draco. It was an unspoken pact that existed in the family. Nobody ever broke it. It wasn't out of fear of a punishment or anything, it simply wasn't done. But deep inside, no matter how much she tried denying this, she couldn't help but know that these images weren't illusions.

Now that she had a few moments to think about it, there were a lot of occasions where she heard her parents whispering in their room. She always heard words like 'Dumbledore' and 'the Order.' The Daily Prophet had been printing lies about Harry and Dumbledore all summer and while the rest of the family scoffed at the ridiculous stories, Ginny always remembered Percy looking intently at the thrown away newspapers in the garbage can with a look quite different from the rest of the family. He seemed to be at the Ministry more often than he was at home. Even on those rare moments that he spent anytime at home, he would be surrounded by stacks of Ministry documents and holed up in his room. Whereas she wasn't as close to him as she was to her other brothers, he was always the one that took time to answer all her questions while the rest of her brothers played Quidditch. He was the one that told her what was the difference between a Goblin and an Elf. He was the one that told her all about Hogwarts and the spells. He even took the time to explain to her (in detail) all the spells she asked about. He was always there to listen to her problems about feeling left out in a big group of brothers. He cared about her so much, she knew how much he blamed himself for thinking that she would blab about his girlfriend when she was about to tell Ron about the Chamber of Secrets. But after he graduated from Hogwarts, all this seemed to change and he didn't even have time for her problems or questions anymore. She knew he was slowly ripping the bonds to his family away. Now, it was like a nightmare come true. In fact, just like the nightmare she had forced herself to forget about.

"_I'm out of here! I don't want to be a Weasley anymore!" Percy screamed at the rest of the family._

"_NO! Don't leave Percy!" Ginny seemed to be a little five year old girl again and pleaded desperately with him and clung onto his leg._

"_I said, I'm out of here, I'm not your brother anymore," he angrily shook her hand off his leg and slammed the door shut._

Maybe it was her mind refusing her denial of her family splitting that caused that dream, maybe it was premonition, who knows? What mattered was the image from the stream was showing her an event that happened in her dream and possibly in real life.

There were a few more moments of silence before Draco asked another question.

"Why are we seeing these images? Where are they coming from?"

"I don't know," Ginny tucked her knees against her chest and put her head down, her voice was muffled, "I don't know," she repeated again. She needed to get away from all this. She wanted to go home and lie down on her bed, surrounded by the familiar smell of her bedspread and sleep the problems away. But she couldn't, she could feel Draco staring at her. Just staring.

Draco recognized this position. It was familiar because he himself often did this when he was alone in his room, knowing, realizing that no matter how rich and powerful he had, nobody ever understood him. Nobody ever tried and nobody ever cared. He remembered these moments where he would actually allow himself the luxury and pain of emotions. Where the dread and tears that threatened to fall reminded him of the curse and exhilaration of being human. He felt a sudden urge to move closer to her. To allow her to feel the warmth of another human being. To gently touch her cheek and wrap his arms around him so she could burrow in his chest and forget about all her troubles. Suddenly, he wanted to protect her from all these troubles. He wanted to shield her eyes if another one of those blasted images showed up. He wanted to be the one to tell her that yes, families stick together, and yes, those were just false images created by his father to trick her and that he was actually the one that abducted her. He wanted…so badly to comfort her.

Is this what compassion feels like? Is this what the feeling of your heart tearing at the sight of some one depressed feels like? Is it?

Before he could think about what he was doing, before his mind could process the social havoc that could erupt if he continued on, Draco found that he was sitting beside Ginny and his hand was on her shoulder.

His hand felt warm compared to the coldness of her body, she felt the sudden urge to shiver, and burrow deep into his touch and never come out. Suddenly, it seemed that in this mysterious place, there wasn't a Malfoy and a Weasley, instead there was simply two people, sharing the same disappointment, the same hole in their lives.

Ginny tilted her head sideways so it was rested on Draco's shoulder. He slid the hand that was touching her shoulder a little more to the right so he was now half embracing her. The feel of her body against his arm was comforting. There was an unspoken understanding between the two of them as they both stayed silent and still, comforting each other's family sorrows only with the feel of their heartbeats.


	10. Doctor Hogg and the Maiden's Blush

-1Chapter 10

Silence echoed throughout the cabin that the Weasleys were staying in. They paced around the various rooms, not sure what just happened and how to react to it. Mrs. Weasley wrung her hands and twisted the hem of her apron repeatedly as she paced around the sitting room and the door of the cabin; certain that Percy was going to appear any second through one of these doorways.

"Molly, he's not coming back," Mr. Weasley walked in from the kitchen and placed his hands on his wife's shoulders, steering her to an armchair.

"He will, I know it," she brushed her husband's hands stubbornly away and turned her eyes to the window instead.

"You know he's not-"

"Arthur, just leave me alone-"

"Stop this, you know-"

"I said leave me alone!" her tone was sharper and she stepped away from her husband, he pulled her shoulders towards him and forced her to turn around.

"Stop doing this to yourself!" his voice grew louder along with hers and anger and frustration began to build up.

"I'm not doing this to myself! You're doing this to me! If it wasn't for you forcing him to choose, he would be here right now!" she turned around and screamed at him. He could see the fire in her deep brown eyes that he used to admire so much, now it sickened him.

"Ginny's our child too! I wasn't forcing him to choose, anybody with a heart would choose his sister over the ministry! He's changed-"

Her hand came in contact with his cheek in the form of a slap, her anger left a trail of stinging pain that ached from his heart to every part of his body.

"I-I, Arthur, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at her hand in horror and reached up as if to stroke his face, but he turned his face away and made a move to leave but stopped in his tracks. She tried to move closer and saw what made him stop: it was Ron, standing at the doorway, staring at his parents in shock as he witnessed their fight.

"I…I'll be going now," he took a deep breath and headed down the hallway, trying to block out the sound of his mother's sobs.

His parents had never really fought before. Sure, his mother ruled the roost in the family and she often lectured his father on his Muggle obsession, but it was never done aggressively, and his father rarely lost his temper. He had never, not even once, seen his parents hit each other. He wasn't a little boy or anything, but there was something about seeing this memory, this image of his parents having a perfect marriage, now torn, that made him felt like a part of him had been torn out.

This was all because Ginny was missing, if she came back, maybe everything will be alright again…

"What does it mean to believe?" Ginny asked softly, her head on Draco's shoulder. There was an air of quietness that made it almost normal for her to lean against him and for him to support her in return. It was an odd feeling to feel his touch in the form of comfort and not torment. He ran his fingers gently down her arm and she felt the warmth of his body travel to hers.

"I don't know," he replied, his answer as soft as her question.

"Have you ever thought something was so real and so concrete that it will never change, and then one day it all just crumbles on you?" her voice started to sound unsteady and he subconsciously pulled her closer, she could feel his breathing on the top of her head, uneven, ragged, but comforting at the same time.

He was quiet for a minute as he contemplated his answer. She waited for his response, but instead of answering her, he leaned back until he was lying on the grass and his face pointed towards the sky.

"What are you doing?" she asked, embracing herself with her arms wrapped around her knees when she felt the warmth of his touch leave her body.

"I've never actually tried it, I've heard people talk about it, now I want to try it," he replied, tilting his chin up and soaking the blue and white of the sky and the clouds.

"Tried what?" she asked still confused, but heart began beating faster at the sight of his easy smile as images of clouds filled his eyes.

"Looking at clouds," he replied as if it were perfectly normal for him to decide on impulse that he wanted to look at clouds.

"You could have just lifted up your head and stared up in any of the sixteen years of your life," she replied, her voice seemed flat and empty compared to her normally energetic tone.

"Its different when you're running around and staring up to see if it'll rain. I've never tried just lying on my back to see if any of the clouds look like an elephant or a cow."

"Well, what do you see?" she asked, her arms still wrapped around her knees.

"Blobs of white and a bit of blue," he blinked at the vast canvas over his head, Ginny could see the blue reflected in his eyes.

"Use your imagination," she suggested, her head turned at an angle so he could not see her face.

"I'm imagining! All I see are still blobs of white!" he protested the same way a toddler would protest that the bogeyman was indeed hiding in his closet.

"Close your eyes and clear your mind, then open them and see what pictures you can see in the clouds," she watched his eyes moved underneath his eyelids as he followed her instructions without doubting. She knew that he never followed people's instructions and definitely never closed his eyes in that way in front of anyone in fear that he might get pranked or attacked. There was something about this type of trust that he was showing her which created a warmth within the iciness that surrounded her when she saw the scene in the water.

"I still don't see anything…" he jokingly complained in a sing-songy voice.

"Look harder," she said, her voice sounding less dreary than before when she saw the little dimple on his left cheek as he complained like a toddler.

"Why don't you show me if you're so good at it? I bet you won't see anything other than blobs if you tried looking," he reached for her hand and tugged gently. She could feel the contour of his hand and the firmness of his grasp, her heart suddenly racing. She could feel the sound of her heart beating in her ears even after he let go

"I bet I can," she retorted and laid down next to him, her head briefly touching his when she turned in his direction to look at an oddly shaped cloud, she quickly turned away in the other direction, unable to control the sweat that was beginning to trickle from the side of her face.

"I bet nobody can even see anything other than blobs when they look at clouds. They just say they can so they seem _romantic_." he insisted and he saw a small smile on her face. He inwardly breathed a small sigh of relief that she seemed less dreary than she was moments before. This knowledge created an odd feeling in him. He felt that he had accomplished something big, something profound. He was able to turn Ginny's sadness into a smile. Somehow, this felt more satisfying than tripping first years or hexing the pants off some Hufflepuff.

"Then who are you trying to look romantic for?" there was an awkward pause and she heard how awkward the question was once it left her mouth, "must be those monkeys that gave you all those fruits they other day, eh?" she added to break the silence, "did you take the fruit pelting as a sign of affection?" she continued teasing when she saw him cringe with embarrassment at the memory.

"And _who_ was the one that got me into that fiasco?" he demanded with an exaggerated expression and she laughed.

"Not me!" she insisted with a giggle at the memory of his struggle in confessing that he accidentally touched a monkey's behind.

"Yeah, I suppose I just decided out of the blue that I wanted to get attacked by a whole bunch of barbaric life forms," she stared nodding her head in which he responded by shaking.

"Someone's holding a grudge."

"I'm not holding a grudge, if I am, I would be doing something really horrible to you right now."

"Like…?"

He looked around for a moment, "Tickling, I would be tickling you," he threatened.

"I'm not ticklish," she lied.

"Oh really?" he asked, a mischievous gleam bringing out the blue tones out of the grey in his eyes.

"Yes, really," she insisted with her 'I am telling the truth' look.

"I guess that means you won't mind if I do this," he rolled over to his back and wiggled his fingers in the air in front of her and began tickling her arm. Which made her instantly shriek with laughter as she rolled away from him.

"I-I…I," she gasped for air in between giggles, "not ticklish!" she continued shrieking with laughter, "I'm not ticklish!" she continued saying while screaming with laughter.

"Oh really, then what's with this shrieking business?" he rolled after her, the fresh scent of grass trailing her giggles.

"I'm not shrieking!" she insisted, as she rolled away from him quicker than before.

"If you're so unticklish, then stop rolling away!" he shouted, he heard some muffled words from her that were not accompanied by giggles.

"Not," she seemed to speak in disconnected words, "rolling-"

"What?" he asked confusingly and suddenly, he felt himself roll involuntarily forward as well.

"I'm not trying to roll!" she shouted and Draco felt extremely uneasy when he realized what she was saying. If she wasn't trying to roll and he wasn't trying either, yet both of them were rolling, it must mean that they were both toppling downhill and had a very big chance of cracking their skulls open on some rock that laid at the bottom.

"I'm not rolling either!" he shouted back. Ginny could hear the slight quiver in his voice that he struggled to hide.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her head felt wobbly and everything seemed blurry.

"I'm fine, you?" he replied when he caught a glimpse of her red hair flying eerily around her head like a beheaded corpse, a chill ran up his spine when his mind made the automatic connection.

"I can't see you! How long have we been rolling!" she closed her eyes and tried to listen to which direction his voice was coming from. Her sight alternated between the blue of the sky and the green of the grass on the ground, she couldn't see anything else.

"Don't worry! I can see you!" he tried his best to sound like everything was going to be fine, but his head seemed to have spun around so many times that that he felt like he was going to pass out soon.

"Oof!" the two of them suddenly stopped rolling and Draco landed on top of Ginny as they landed. Their landing position was almost identical to the first time they landed in a heap together with his lips almost landing on hers and the front of his body almost pressing against the front of her body, his muscular arms were the only thing supporting the weight of his body so his body wouldn't _actually_ touch hers. Ginny's cheeks immediately flamed as she tried to get her heart to stop beating so quickly since Draco was so close that he would feel it for sure. She could feel his laboured breathing against her neck, soft and ticklish.

They stayed awkwardly frozen in that position as they both contemplated in their minds how to move away from this position without doing something that would embarrass themselves and each other. Draco lifted his right hand off the ground so he could roll over to his back and not have to force himself to calm down as he could see through the depths of her endless caramel-brown eyes. His arm accidentally brushed against her chest and flashes of his erotic dream combined with the image he saw of her bathing caused his body to react in a way he would rather Ginny not notice.

_You are NOT a hormonally challenged Gryffindor, Malfoy! SO STOP ACTING LIKE ONE!_

"Sorry," he mumbled, finally rolling onto his back and turning pink.

"Oh…that's alright," she mumbled back and blushed even redder when she noticed how it sounded out loud, "no, I don't mean that I want to be you know-"

"Its alright, Weasley. I always reckoned I was the most desired shag in all of Hogwarts," he let out a little laugh that did not match his pink face as he tried to break the awkwardness.

"Har dee har har, very funny, maybe the biggest ego in Hogwarts is more like it," she stood up to brush the grass stains off her clothes. Draco tried to train his eyes not to look at her hands as she brushed bits of grass off her bum

_Repeat: I am not a perv, I am not a perv…_

"That was a steep hill considering we're surrounded by all this flat land," she said, snapping Draco out of his eyeball bulging self control exercise. "

"Should we just stay here? Or go back up that hill," he asked, trying to focus on his question and not the person he was addressing the question to.

"Well, it seems kind of like a better idea to go back there. The stream always seems to have something to do with when we change locations, but if we go back we might get lost and end up somewhere…" she trailed off and suddenly noticed something else, "Hey, is that a house?"

"House?" he turned to where she was staring and tried to ignore the emerald specks of grass in her shimmering red hair and saw a brown blob in the distance.

"I think it is a house! If it's a house and someone lives there, we can get help!" she turned to him excitedly, but he felt like he swallowed an ice cube when the thought of no longer being able to be with Ginny alone in this way entered his mind. Seeing her smile, he plastered a plastic-like one on his face as well.

Of course he should be happy. He should be jumping up and down at the thought of going back home and not being stuck in the wilderness alone with a Weasley…right?

"I guess we should go over and see," he suggested and regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth.

"Good idea, come on, lets go!" she reached for his hand and pulled him forward. In her excitement of being able to see her parents and her brothers again, she didn't even notice she was holding Draco's hand or the fake smile on his face.

After about five minutes, she realized she was holding his hand and let go embarrassingly.

_Merlin, what's wrong with me today? I keep on doing weird things around him! First, I say its okay that he touched my chest and now I'm holding his hand? I must be turning psychotic._

She let her hand dangle at her side but for some reason, they kept on brushing against Draco's.

_What are you doing, Weasley? Just because you aren't enemies with him anymore doesn't mean its okay to go all girly and giggly around him. Besides, YOU DON'T LIKE HIM IN THAT WAY!_

He turned and looked at her curiously.

"You're quiet all of a sudden," he said.

"Oh well, I…yeah," she randomly said words that seemed to not make much sense at all.

_I will not blubber, I will say things that can actually be understood._

"Scared?" he asked and smiled at her. Her breath immediately hitched and caught in her throat.

_Bloody sodding hell, I really am turning psychotic!_

"Not reall-," she stopped, "actually, yeah, I am kind of scared," she decided to admit that she was scared, figuring she couldn't say anything idiotic if she admitted to it.

"Scared of what? That they'll kick us off their property because we smell too much like sweat?" he asked jokingly.

"I took a bath last night so I shouldn't smell too bad," she saw his cheeks flamed when she mentioned the word 'bath.'

"Oh, er, I didn't know you took a bath," he said, his cheeks still pink as he tried his best to sound like he really didn't know she took a bath.

"I think you were probably asleep. I just woke up in the middle of the night feeling all sticky so I decided to take a bath."

"I probably need one," he said and she moved closer to him and sniffed.

"You don't smell that bad," she reassured him, "but interesting thing is I think there might be someone else in this place besides us."

"You mean whoever lives in that house?"

"No, I was bathing yesterday when I heard a branch snap. So I turned to look and a saw the back of someone with blonde hair. Actually, in almost the same shade as yours."

_Oh shit. Malfoy, you're doomed._

"Must have been the person in the house, I mean loads of people have blonde hair, not just me, but like lots and lots of people…" his face grew redder and redder as he rambled on.

"Wait a minute, Malfoy were you by the stream last-"

"Hey, we're here already!" he cut her off as they were standing three feet away from the pathway leading to the front door of the house. She immediately forgot the question she was asking.

They walked briskly on the path until they approached the front door. It was an old fashioned looking house with two glass windows facing the front. The roof was shaped in a triangle similar to one drawn by a small child. Ginny could hear the sounds of a watermill that was probably located at the back of the house. From the outside so far, it looked like a house from a picture book.

"You're knocking," she said quickly.

"And I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave," he said as he rapped his knuckles against the wooden door.

"I thought Slytherins were big on being gentlemen," she retorted as they waited for someone to answer the door.

"Knocking on the door has nothing to do with chivalry," he raised his fist as if to knock again before being stopped by Ginny.

"Don't be rude, we'll make a bad impression if we keep ramming on their door."

"If we don't keep knocking and it turns out nobody heard it the first time, we'd look stupid and that would make a bad impression."

"Just wait a few more minutes," she replied to his sarcastic comment. Draco made no move to knock again. They stood in front of the door for another fifteen minutes staring straight ahead at the wooden door that still did not open.

This time Draco raised his fist to knock again and Ginny didn't stop him.

There was no response.

"I don't think anybody's home," he said and Ginny pressed her ear against the door, "hey, if they walked out the door right now, that would definitely make a bad impression."

"Shh, I'm trying to hear if anybody's in the house," she continued listening with intense concentration.

"Do you hear anything?" he asked and she shook her head.

"I guess we'll have to sit here and wait for whoever lives here to come back," she sat down in front of the door.

"I'm going to see what's behind the house," he walked over to the back and Ginny got up to follow him.

Behind the house was a stream with a watermill running through it. There was a room in the house with a window facing the mill. Past the stream was a flat field of acres and acres of apple trees. The sharp green land was dotted with hundreds and hundreds of brown and green plants. The owner of the house was apparently an apple farmer.

"Look at all the apples," Ginny walked up to a tree and admired the fruits growing on them, "do you think the owner will let us try some when he or she gets back?"

The apples were another unfortunate reminder of his dream, but he had been walking for a few hours now and his stomach was rumbling with hunger.

"Lets try some now."

"But if the owner comes back while we're pigging out on apples, I have a feeling they're not going to like it."

"There's so many, nobody will ever know."

Ginny's stomach growled and she gave in.

"Okay, but we should try not to pick too many."

Ginny soon forgot her goal of not picking so many apples when they began exploring the fields. There were so many varieties of apples in different shapes and colours. Draco watched as Ginny climbed swiftly up the trees, laughing as she bit into the apples with a childishly innocent delight, juice dribbling down her chin and her richly Titian-red hair framing her face. She tossed him apples to try and soon, both of them were lying against a tree trunk with an armful of apples tasting all the different textures.

"These are so sweet," Ginny said as she bit into a yellowish pink Braeburn apple.

_Not as sweet as you._

_Merlin, Malfoy, that is revoltingly sappy. WHATS WITH YOU!_

"I like these ones better, they're crispier," he said as he bit into a red and yellow apple.

"That's called a Maiden's Blush," she said as she selected a Hudson's Golden Gem.

"Really," he said as he held the apple next to her face.

"What?" she asked, blushing as he seemed to stare intently at her face.

"I think it suits you," he said, taking another bite of the apple, "I like the sound of it, Maiden's Blush."

She blushed even redder before regaining her composure and handed him an apple.

"I think this name suits you," she said with a wide smile on her face.

"What is it?"

"Doctor Hogg."

"Hey, you made that up!"

"Its real, I swear."

"Then I bet this one's called Mister Poophead and this other one's probably Miss Pee Pee, and that one over there's Mister Butthead," he took each apple from the pile and began naming them with childish insults, "and then there's Missus Smellyfarts…"

She began laughing at his names and he saw a twinkle in her eyes that made her seem more lively and enticing.

"Doctor Hogg," she repeated it as if it were his new nickname.

"Maiden's Blush," he took another bite and said the apple like her name.

An afternoon of playful quarrelling and apple sampling later, the sun had set and the crescent moon floated on the velvety night sky. They were now lying on the grass, face turned towards the stars.

As Ginny looked at the dazzling diamonds in the sky, she breathed in the gentle night air and felt the breeze embrace her bare arms. She could feel Draco's body next to hers and remembered the scene she saw in the stream this morning. She didn't feel cold or empty like she did when she first saw the images. Instead, she felt warm, bubbly, and relaxed. It didn't make sense, she shouldn't be feeling this way after experiencing something like that. How did she go from being depressed to being so cheery?

Draco.

He was the one that decided to experiment with cloud gazing, he was the one that suggested trying the apples, he was the one that made up weird names for all the apples. He was the one that made her smile, made her laugh, and made her forget all her troubles.

"Thank-you," she whispered, turning her face so her lips moved closer and closer to his face…


	11. A Web of Tangled Desires

-1Chapter 11

As Ginny's lips moved closer and closer to Draco's face, he could hear the thundering of his heartbeat in his ears, heat radiated off every inch of his skin, his limbs tingled with excitement and he could feel his face move slowly towards hers, his eyes closed as he braced for the luxurious touch of her lips.

"I think I know who was by the lake when I was taking a bath last night," her lips moved sideways at the last moment when they were supposed to meet his lips and whispered into his ear instead.

Draco's eyes snapped wide open and grew as big as extremely ripe grapefruit. This was not exactly what he thought would happen. In fact, he felt like jumping up and pounding his fists on the ground in frustration like some kind of baboon. Of course, he would never do something that absurd, but if his Pureblood mind wasn't even close to retching at the idea of kissing Ginny, the baboon imitation might not occur too far off into the future. But he couldn't be exactly blamed for having these feelings, her _lips_, those plump, ruby-red petals of softness, denying his touch! They were a sodding quarter inch from his and she _moves_ away. And to rub some more salt on the already throbbing wound, he was about to be recognized as a pervert in her eyes.

"Oh," he answered in his best 'I-didn't-do-it' voice.

"You sound shocked," she replied, he could feel the warmth of her breath against his jaw, the anxiety and fear of her finding out combined with the closeness of her body created a conflicted mix of pain and pleasure in his body.

"I…I," Draco trailed off, trying to think of an excuse that didn't sounded somewhat believable.

"What's with you all of a sudden? You sound like you're the one that was peeking at me last night," she teased, Draco tensed up immediately.

_Relax and stop acting like a pile of dragon dung. She said that you sound like you're the peeping tom, not you are the peeping tom._

"I do _not_ sound like I'm guilty. That's simply preposterous! The idea of me sneaking up on a naked girl on the night and spying on her! Simply unbelievable! Absolutely ludicrous! Outrageous…"

Ron opened the first door he saw and stepped into the room, he closed the door with a slam and realized he had been holding his breath the whole time. He closed his eyes and tried to refocus on finding Ginny and not on the scene he just witnessed when he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Ron, are you alright?" He opened his eyes and saw Hermione on a plushy armchair in the corner surrounded by a stack of books. Judging by the shelves surrounding him that were filled with dusty books, he was in the library. Every wall was lined from floor to ceiling in antique leather covered volumes. There were several ladders placed throughout the room to allow a reader to climb up and reach for a book on the top shelves. A tall glass window faced the lake with a view of the sparkling water illuminated by the setting sun.

"Yeah," Ron nodded gruffly and prepared to leave, he was not in the mood to listen to Hermione babble about all the books she discovered in the library.

"I heard…the shouting in the hallway-"

"You stayed with us before, you know how Mum's always like that, its nothing, really," he said in an overly cheerful tone more for his own benefit than hers.

Sympathy washed over Hermione's eyes for a moment, she saw right through his façade of false happiness.

"Why don't we give them some privacy to sort things out then," she cleared some books off the chair beside her and motioned for him to sit down, "so where's Harry?"

"Looking for Ginny, I reckon," he answered in a flat tone while mindlessly flicking open the covers of the books in front of him. His azure-blue eyes far-away, concentrated at the world outside the window of the library, wondering where his sister was.

At the thought of his baby sister lost out there somewhere and the marriage of his parents breaking up, his hands curled involuntarily into fists, the ancient parchment of the pages crumpled in his hand.

"Don't blame yourself, its not your fault-" Hermione placed her hand on top of Ron's fist, wincing slightly at the sight of the ruined pages in his hands.

"I don't know what you're talking about," his hand jerked back quickly, causing him to rip the page in his fist out of the book. He looked down at the sound of ripping parchment. "Oh bloody sodding hell, there I've gotten you a better excuse to scream at me than losing Ginny. There, I've ripped one of your stupid precious books!" He angrily threw the parchment on the table and sat down hard on his chair. He ran his hand through his tousled ginger hair, his chest heaving as he gulped for air.

Hermione stayed silent.

"Shit, I've lost it," he got up all of a sudden and headed to the door. Confusion and anger bubbled inside of him. How dare Hermione imply it was his fault that Ginny was missing! How dare she sit here and read her stupid books! His world was spinning out of control and he felt dizzy with tears trapped inside him that he could never let out. He closed his hand around the doorknob and prepared to wrench it open when Hermione finally spoke.

"Ron, I think I might know where Ginny is," she said as she held up the book he accidentally tore a page out of. She smoothed out the crumpled page that revealed a map. Even from where Ron was standing, he recognized the landscape and the lake in the middle of the map. His eyes darted to the cover of the book, '_The Life and Times of Grinzewald'._

"You don't mean…" he murmured, taking a Chocolate Frog out of his pocket thoughtfully, his mind whirling not with confusion or anger, but with hope.

Draco was still murmuring in his sleep when Ginny woke up the next morning. The sun was just beginning to rise and the sky was a splash of pink and orange Somehow their limbs became a gigantic knot as her arm ended up being thrown gently around his neck and his face was turned towards her cheek, as if he was about to give her a kiss.

"I'm not a peeping tom," he mumbled in his sleep as he slung an arm around her shoulders as if trying to stop her from leaving.

Ginny's cheeks turned as red as the apples she ate yesterday and her heart thumped against the casual brushing of Draco's arm. He rolled over in his sleep, his lips now facing hers. She had come so close to kissing him last night, but just as she was about to do it, something stopped her. It was the knowledge that this was _wrong._ Maybe wrong was actually an understatement, she was a Gryffindor, he was a Slytherin, once she did kiss him, there would be no going back. Right now, at least she could tell herself that it was lust, that was all they felt for each other. Or at least, what she felt towards him, right? She didn't even know how he felt about her. He was rich, good looking, and a Pureblood; a heartthrob in Slytherin, he could get almost any girl he wanted and from what she heard, he never involved himself in relationships, only sex. What made her any different? He thought of her as a 'blood-traitor' and he was at the stream last night when she was bathing. This definitely proved that he lusted after her, but did he feel for her in any other way? He did try to _hide_ the fact that he saw her bathing, he did save her from the bees, and he made her smile yesterday.

But if they did decide to give their relationship a try, it would only hurt more later on. They would have to break up eventually since he would most likely follow his father's footsteps and become a Death Eater. There was no way she would even be able to _love_ a monster that killed people for Voldemort. Besides, maybe she was just imagining these feelings that he had for her. Maybe it would be like the Harry fiasco all over again. She spent so much time dreaming and imagining Harry loving her back that she actually started to believe it and she ended up making a fool out of herself.

She untangled herself from his limbs and sat up, running her fingers through her knotted hair and trying to distract herself. The air felt heavy and warm around her like a stifling blanket, the sun had just risen, the sky was a sorbet of orange and pink, the fresh scent of grass in the morning swirled around her, the gentle splash of the waterwheel moving in the stream prompted her to direct her gaze to the direction of the house they had seen yesterday, the key to their escape from this place which seemed to enjoy carrying them from place to place. In a way, there was something about this place that made her not want to leave. Here, the border between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Enemy and Friend, were not so distinct.

Draco stirred beside her, noticing the warmth in his arms was gone. A tell-tale yawn told her that he was now awake.

"So what do we do now?" he asked, still sounding slightly asleep. His blonde hair was flattened on one side of his head while sticking straight up like a rooster's tail on the other.

"I guess we should knock on the door again to see if the owner of the house is home," she carefully distanced herself from him. It was much easier to deal with her emotions towards him when he wasn't so close, when she couldn't feel his breathing or hear his heartbeat.

"Well before we go and knock on their door, it might be a good idea to make ourselves more…" she glanced briefly at the hair sticking up on top of his head, "presentable."

"I look perfectly fine!" he insisted, "Don't worry, if a woman answers the door, she won't be able to resist my Malfoy charms."

Ginny tried to keep a straight face.

"Well, if she can get past your very interesting hairstyle to actually be 'charmed' by you."

"There's nothing wrong with my hair," he insisted, patting his hair down in a very 'Mrs. Weasley being nervous about meeting Lockhart' manner that the giggles she was trying to hold were released like potion from an overturned cauldron.

"Oh-that's just…absolute-" she spoke in fragments due to gasping for breath from laughing and breaking for giggles in between.

"What?" he demanded self consciously.

"You better see this yourself," she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the stream so he could see his own reflection. He let her pull him along just so he could feel the warmth of his hand in hers. It reminded him of warm thoughts; holding freshly baked bread in his hands, feeling the first sunshine of spring on his face, feeling the heat of the fireplace while watching snowflakes gently float to the ground outside. The same urges he had felt last night once again floated in his mind, but he didn't want to control them. There was something about the atmosphere of the place they were in that made him want to let go, to release the imaginary shackles that bounded him from his feelings.

But Ginny released his hand before he had a chance make any further move. His feelings towards her, however, were slightly distracted by the reflection of himself in the stream. He swiftly took his shirt off on the spot with Ginny blushing violently when she caught sight of his bare chest.

"I'm taking a bath," he announced, "now will you please close your eyes," he said as he undid his buckle, "I can see you peeking already," he whispered. Ginny blushed even more and decided to turn around instead.

"I wasn't peeking!" she insisted and he laughed as he splashed water on himself.

"Come on, you and I both know you want a piece of me. Though I can give you more than just a piece if you ask politely, Miss Weasley," he teased. He noticed that he had a very good view of Ginny's backside and the rest of her body as she stood with her back facing him. Every bit of her from her gently tumbling waves of Titain-red hair to the womanly curves on her body made his already excessively active hormones turn him into a state that nature should outlaw.

_Miss Weasley_, she couldn't help but feel a fluttery feeling in her chest at this point. But she reminded herself that she had to have some control. It seemed to be getting harder though, especially when the feelings from yesterday started rushing back and her skin remembered the feeling of touching Draco's as they laid side by side underneath the stars.

"I think you would find, _Mr. Malfoy_, that I do not want any piece of you at all," she retorted lightly and laughed. Draco couldn't help but stop and admire her voice and her personality. She was definitely beautiful on the outside, but there was something about a girl that cared about him on the inside instead of just telling him all the time and could still joke around with him that made him feel all wobbly inside, yet hot and solid on the outside.

"So are we going to knock on that door again and see what happens?" he said as the splashing resumed. Ginny tried very hard not to think about him naked in the water.

"I think we should sit in front of the door and wait for the owner instead of sitting by the backyard. That way, he or she would notice us as soon as they approach the door-"

"and we can get trampled over. An absolutely _lovely_ idea."

"Ha ha, very funny. By the way, have you noticed that you take longer to bathe than all the girls in my year combined?"

"You just want an excuse to turn around and see me naked," he climbed out of the water and put on his clothes without bothering to wait for his skin to dry first. His damp skin against his white shirt allowed the outline of his chest to be entirely visible, Ginny tried her best to ignore it.

"Yeah, just as much as I want to see Filch naked."

"You know you're denying it," he teased with an exaggerated seductive tone.

"Bugger off," she pushed him playfully as they walked towards the front of the house.

"Oh, another excuse to touch me, eh?" he wagged his eyebrows at her and she slapped his arm again with a laugh.

"You wish."

Somehow, when the word left her lips, it seemed to take on a different meaning in both of their minds. Draco was suddenly very aware of the imprint of warmth left by her hand against his skin. She could see and feel his excitement and nervousness from his rapid breathing and the quick rise and fall of his chest.

"Maybe I do," he said as they walked up the front path of the house.

"You do what?" she asked even though she knew what he meant and she wished he wouldn't continue on because if he said exactly what he wished for, it would just be too hard for her to control her feelings.

"Maybe I do wish that-" he was cut off when Ginny placed her hand on the doorknob instead of knocking first due to nervousness and the door flew right open, revealing…


	12. Heart on the Palm

-1Chapter 12

Draco jumped slightly when the door flew open and his hand jerked away from Ginny. They stood at the doorway, slightly in awe. The entire house consisted of one room with no walls separating the kitchen, bedroom, dining room, or living room. The interior of the house was worn and the furniture seemed to have a medieval-like air to it. There were several windows along the walls that lit up the room in natural sunlight.

The two of them stood still, waiting for the person who opened the door to announce themselves.

Nobody appeared.

"What just happened?" she stared at the open door with a mix of curiosity and fear.

"Well, I would say that the door just flew open on its own, but if you prefer, I could use a string of fancy synonyms and repeat-"

"That was not what I meant," she hit his lips with her hand playfully as if slapping him, "does anyone actually live here?"

"Oh, getting ideas for a love shack, aren't we?" he raised his eyebrows suggestively, but inside felt bubbles floating around and his breathing felt uncomfortably restricted as he remembered the sensation of her hand brushing against his lips just seconds before.

"Looks like someone needs to keep his overly large ego and his hormones in check," she noted as she stepped into the house and took in her surroundings.

"And whoever lives here needs to keep his cushions cleaner," he said as he examined a cushion from the couch with his index and thumb finger while waving away clouds of dust that kept coming out in puffs.

"Seems like no one's lived here for awhile," she said as she took the cushion from his hand and placed it back on the couch.

"_Awhile_ is a way of putting it," he made a face when he managed to make fingerprints on the coffee table from all the dust that was coating it.

"I guess we should get started," she suggested.

"Get started on what?"

"Making this place fit for human inhabitation," she said and he stared at her blankly. "Cleaning."

"That's for House-Elves! I'm not doing that!" he exclaimed as if cleaning was some sort of contagious, fatal disease.

"Well, then you have two options. You can sleep here and cough up dust balls in the middle of the night while you're sleeping, or you can sleep outside."

"I'm sleeping-" he was about to say 'outside', but the sound of thunder outside cut him off and he ran to the window where rain was falling to the ground.

"Hey, that's not fair! It was sunny a second ago," he complained as if nature was taking Ginny's side against him.

"I guess you're going to give me a wet-shirt strip show outside then," she suggested jokingly.

"I was going to say that I'm sleeping here. Who needs to keep their hormones in check now?"

"Don't just stand there, look for cleaning supplies," she ordered, ignoring his retort.

"You mean we're doing this the Muggle way?" he asked, his expression similar to a person that has just been told that the world was going to end in forty-six seconds.

"Unless our wands suddenly work or you have some powers that I wasn't aware of, then yes, we're doing it the Muggle way," she smirked at his 'the world is ending' expression.

He took out his wand and tried every incantation he knew. He would have cried with joy if he suddenly caused the table in front of him to explode and half of his eyebrows got shaved off. It was his last desperate hope of avoiding having to work like a Muggle.

Well, maybe not the whole eyebrow thing, it would look very horrid and he was not the type that believed in 'macho-grooming.' In other words, he wasn't into walking out of his room wearing whatever was closest to the foot of his bed.

"_Wingardium Leviosa! Scrougify! Impedimenta! Stupefy! Agumenti!_" he continued shouting all the spells he could remember.

"When you're done with your spell demonstration, I would like to get started," she said with an eyebrow raised at his expression of hopelessness.

"What are you going to make me do?" he asked as he followed her to the cupboards near the kitchen part of the house.

"It depends on what supplies we can actually find, but you're probably getting the water."

"You know what I find weird about this house?" he asked after he looked around.

"What?"

"There's no bathroom."

"I think they use an outhouse," she explained. This was going to be a repeat of the whole 'bathroom in the forest' outburst.

"A what?"

"it's a toilet outside of the house."

"Who would do that? Why not put it inside? What if you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night in the winter?" A sudden horrifying image of a Popsicle replacing certain parts of his anatomy flashed through his mind.

"Because an outhouse is basically a pit in the ground surrounded by a small room. Unless you want your house to smell like that all the time, it makes sense to put it outside and they probably use chamber pots during the night."

"I don't want to know," his eyes grew wide with disgust, "now am I supposed to go get water right or something?"

"I'm not done looking around the house yet to see where we should actually start," she replied while moving on to the bedroom part of the house and stopping at the far wall. "Hey, there's a door here," she paused at the barely noticeable door that almost camouflaged into the wall.

She had to place her hands on the wall to actually feel where the door was. She opened it. The air was cooler than it was in the previous room and it was dark and slightly musty. The only source of light came from a small window that was almost as high as the ceiling. There was an apple press in the centre of the room that apparently ran on the waterwheel outside. There were various shelves that covered the walls, all filled with bottles. All of them either cider or vinegar.

"So are we supposed to clean the house with apple cider?" he asked as he examined a dusty bottle of amber liquid.

"You mean Ginny's stuck on some island that was the lair of the evil wizard that Dumbledore defeated fifty years ago?" Harry asked doubtfully, eying the map on the table suspiciously.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in the library of the cabin. Ron and Hermione had spent the day in there researching about Grindelwald. It was now night time and a fire blazed in the hearth, causing a flickering shadow of Harry's Firebolt that was leaning against the fireplace.

"I'm not exactly sure, but according to the map and this book, Grindelwald's hidden headquarters was on an island that was surrounded by mist and the mist only allowed entrance to his most devoted followers. According to this book, since 1945, a total of seven witches and wizards have been reported missing around this area," Hermione explained expertly.

"I don't know about you, mate, but if Hermione says my baby sister's trapped on some island that this Grindelwalrus-"

"Grindelwald, Ron-"

"Fine, _Grindelwald_. Then she's probably right, I mean, after all, she is the brightest witch in our year and probably in all of Hogwarts," Ron commented and Hermione turned red at his compliment.

"Why would Ginny get trapped there? If only his most devoted followers can get in, why would Ginny be able to get in there in the first place?" Harry asked as he studied the map again.

"Well, seven people have been reported lost around this area before so they must have been able to get in. I would guess that a powerful wizard like him would have set up wards around the island that would only allow certain wizards and witches to get in. Or, maybe he decided that even though _he_ was defeated, his magic would continue to haunt the world and kill people. Similar to Salazar Slytherin and the Chamber of Secrets."

"Is there a way for us to get in, find Ginny, and not be trapped in there?" Ron asked, his eyes focusing on the hazy, dark, blur outside the window of the library.

"I tried at first when we thought Ginny was hiding, as soon as I hit the mist, it threw me out," Harry replied.

"A ward set up by one of the most powerful and evil wizards that ever lived won't be that easy to break. I have a feeling that it might be one of those challenges where the people trapped in there have to work out themselves."

"So you're saying that Ginny's in there all alone and there's nothing we can do about it?" Ron asked his voice etched with worry and disappointment with himself.

"She's not in there all alone, Malfoy's there too."

"I can't believe I'm touching this crap with my bare hands. It's filthy, disgusting, servant's work," he complained loudly. The two had spent the last two hours _scraping_ the surfaces of the house. The filth actually came off in solid pieces so Ginny decided that it would probably be easier to scrape off all the dirt and dust, then use water to clean off any spots that were missed.

"Look on the bright side, if you're not cleaning this off, you'd be sleeping _in_ this filth tonight. I think I scraped all the stuff off on my side, I'm going to get some water," she dropped the butter knife she was using to scrape the cupboards and headed to the door.

"BOOM!" a loud blast knocked Ginny backwards, hitting her head against the coffee table as soon as she touched the doorknob.

"What just happened?" she asked, rubbing the back of her head that hit the table.

"Are you alright?" he ran over immediately and she felt her heart hammering away as he looked at her concernedly.

"Yeah, I think so, but why is the door doing that?"

He looked around the room, his expression serious.

"I think this might be a trap. The door opened for us when you touched the knob and now it threw you back when you tried to open the door. Someone set up wards in this house to trap us in here," he explained, his expression serious.

"Why would anyone want to trap us here anyways?"

"Well…" he began awkwardly, "your family does have connections that are not looked well upon by supporters of the Dark Lord, especially with Potter. So this might be a trap to hold you hostage and force your family to hand over information or…certain people." He knew his words were a mistake as soon as they left his lips. He knew, by seeing the change of expression on Ginny's face with every uttered syllable that this was one stupid mistake he was making.

His explanation hung in the air like thick fog between them, his words swirled in her mind. Did this mean that he was part of an evil scheme to kidnap her? If this was a trap by the Death Eaters, then why was he telling her? Why was he even here? It wouldn't make sense for Lucius Malfoy to risk the life of his precious son in a trap filled with (most likely) fatal enchantments.

He saw the look in her eyes. The flicker of fear and confusion danced around her chocolate-brown irises. There was a look of distrust she had as she stared at him in silence after he offered his explanation. It was the look he was accustomed to getting from his fellow Hogwarts students and even from members of the Slytherin house. It was the look that she gave him when they first landed in a forest with her lips touching his. Somehow, seeing this look again, after all this time they spent together and the mix of feelings he eventually developed for her, it caused what could only be described as a sudden pain in his chest, from the centre of his heart.

"What about you?" she asked softly.

"What about me?" he asked in response to her question, hoping very much that this was not some stupid plan his father came up with to kill two bloody birds with one sodding stone and punish his son while kidnapping a blood-traitor at the same time.

"Seeing that you don't have a reason for being kidnapped, it does mean only one thing, doesn't it?"

"Are you saying that I'm kidnapping you?" he asked, already knowing what her response was. This was not how he thought things would turn out. Just moments before, they were laughing together, in the middle of nowhere, not exactly friends, not exactly enemies, not exactly sure of how they felt about each other. All of a sudden, it seemed like they were thrust back into the reality where they came from just weeks ago where Weasleys and Malfoys were enemies.

She forced herself to turn away from his gaze. She knew she wouldn't be able to think clearly when her emotions were directing her mind. He was telling her, with his eyes that he was innocent, that he didn't know what was going on. That he was simply offering his explanation to her question and it wasn't some kind of setting for him to eventually revealing his evil side.

"I don't know," she sat down on the couch and puffs of dust blew in her face, causing her to cough.

"If I was trying to kidnap you, I could have gotten henchmen to carry you away while you're asleep or I could have drugged your food with potions, I wouldn't need to use something this obvious," he told her this in a steady voice, with confidence, but she could still hear a hint of a tremble; a fear of being doubted by her. He was staring at her with that look, that look that made her heart race, the look that made her mouth feel dry, the look that made her tingle all over. She curled her fist on the corner of the dusty cushion, her palms damp with sweat. She could feel his gaze on her as she continued avoiding it.

"Weasley," he whispered, "Ginny, do you trust me?" he asked her in the same gentle, quiet way he comforted her after seeing the image in the stream with Percy leaving. He asked her with determination in his voice, the same way he saved her from the bees. She finally met his gaze. She saw a mix of the boy she hated and whom she now was trying not to love. She saw the playfulness when they were having a food fight, the pride from when they had their first argument in the forest, the courage from when he saved her from the bees, the passion from all those little moments, from the time she almost kissed him to the time she saw him spying on her when she was bathing; now she saw the side of him that was so desperate for her to believe him, to trust him.

"If you trust me, there's a way for us to get out of here."

Her mind felt an overload of emotions and her logic fighting a losing battle, she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, but the only thing she could think of, was him.

"I…I trust you," she said after some hesitation.

"With hexes and jinxes, most often, they don't require the counter-curse to break them. Magic is a form of power but not the most powerful. Emotion is what controls magic. Dark Magic feeds on anger, fear, and jealousy. Counter-curses are built on trust, happiness…and love. If we channel the positive energy, we can break the curse without knowing what the counter curse is. Which is why Death Eaters use fear and torture to try and stop their captives from channelling this energy," he explained, using all his years of knowledge as the son of a Death Eater.

"So what do I have to do?"

He took her hand and held it palm facing up, he traced her deeper lines with his fingers.

"Did you take Divination?" he asked.

"No, Ron told me it was a complete waste of time, why?"

"I need to remember which one is the love line," his brows furrowed in concentration as he repeated the same motions, making her palms sticky with sweat.

"Why do you need to know that?" she asked.

"I need to make a cut on the love line of both of our love lines and we need our blood to bond in order to break the curse with this method."

"Just cut all of them."

"Are you sure? Its going to hurt."

"I'm sure," she replied and looked at her with a gaze that made him feel momentarily weak in the knees, "after all, I trust you."

He swallowed and took his belt off, she stared at him and blushed when he caught her.

"No, I'm not shagging you, I just need something sharp," he found the part of the belt he was looking for. "Do you want to do this yourself or do you want me to do it for you?"

"You do it for me and I'll do it for you," she replied and swallowed as well when she saw the sharp point on his belt.

"Ready?" he asked and she nodded. He took the point and traced it lightly against one of her palm lines at first, it was almost ticklish. Suddenly, he pressed down harder and made a cut on her skin. She flinched but made no sound. When he was finally finished, he handed the belt to her.

"This is going to hurt, I'm going to have to be quick or else the blood on my palms are going to dry," she explained and he nodded silently with his eyes closed.

"I'm going to have to have physical contact with you," he said after all the bold lines on his palm were cut.

"You're going to touch me."

"Yes, but not in _that _way," he assured her, "unless you want me to," he added mischievously afterwards.

"Sex crazed pervert," she taunted and the atmosphere felt a little lighter.

"Just telling you what you're too afraid to admit you want," he grinned and reached out to trace the outline of her jaw, "now concentrate on your feelings for me," he said as he pressed his cut palm against hers.

"You mean the feelings of you being a pervert?"

"Whatever you want," he whispered, his fingers lightly tracing her lips, his eyes were closed.

"What feelings about me are you concentrating on?" she asked, shuddering at the contact of his finger and her lips.

"Just about you in general so far," his hand moved down to her neck, tracing her collarbone.

She traced a finger boldly against the outline of his chest, his breathing hitched, she could feel the thumping of his heart against her fingertips.

"Does this help?" she asked.

"Yes, it does," he replied huskily, his hands now on her shoulders.

She now placed her hand on his chest and slowly moved it upwards, pausing to caress his neck. His hands moved faster now, making circles around her hips. He could feel a pressure inside of him with every contact he made, the magic was building up, any second now, it would be strong enough to break the curse.

He saw her hand gently trembling as she felt the pressure within her as well she took her small hand in his and squeezed it gently. His calloused palms forming a distinct contrast with her soft hands. Her hips pressed against his pelvis, he felt the hunger, the desire to taste her lips, a carnal longing within him directing him to reach forward, to lay his hand on her soft cheek, to gently cup her face in his hands, and to finally gently caress her lips with his own. Lusting flames burned in her chocolate-brown irises and she was indeed, as tantalizing as chocolates.

Her desire reflected in his eyes, laced and embedded to the very distinct grey of his eyes. His breath tickling her lips. The worries of her mind, her doubt seemed foggy and unimportant as his lips finally met hers. It was a polite kiss, a gentlemanly kiss, but a kiss edged with fire, with passion, with three weeks of frustrated tension behind it and magic pumping through their veins. One hand left her hip and Draco placed it on the door.

There was a sudden loud crash and the house collapsed.


	13. Through the Mist

-1Chapter 13

"Mmm, yes, definitely the work of a master," Bill Weasley said admiringly as he twirled his wand, drawing a line of sparks over the fog. Intricate lines of blue and red webbed around the entire body of fog with rune characters scattered between the lines.

"Is there any way we can get in there?" Charlie asked, rolling his eyes at his brother's praise of spell work at a time like this.

"Well, I tried to fly in on my broom but it threw me out," Harry replied.

"Maybe it doesn't let you in on broom. Fred and George found Ginny's broomstick in the woods around the cabin. So she might have fallen off her broom and then landed in there," Hermione turned her gaze to the mist to indicate what she was talking about instead of pointing.

She was riding on a broom hovering above what seemed like an endlessly deep lake along with Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Harry, and Ron. After hearing Mr. And Mrs. Weasley's argument, nobody wanted to approach either one of them in case their ideas didn't work and it led to another row. To add to this horrifying image, it was in the middle of the night and the only source of light was the moon and she couldn't even light her wand due to being underage.

It wasn't that she didn't want Ginny returned safely, but did the rest of the Weasleys have to _fly_ immediately outside after the three of them presented their suspicions about the island? Couldn't they use a rowboat instead? As much as she hated to admit it, hovering hundreds of feet over water in the middle of the night on a thin piece of wood was not her idea of fun. Her sweaty hands gripped the handle so tightly that her knuckles were turning white and every time she felt a breeze, it felt like it was knocking her off balance.

"Ginny's a pretty good flier and she's a Chaser, so it wouldn't be that easy to knock her off her broom. Unless Malfoy did something to her," Harry noted worriedly.

"We found his broom next to Ginny's and when you grow up in the same house as me and Fred, you learn the pranks from the best," George announced proudly, "if Malfoy's with Ginny right now, I reckon he wouldn't have his precious family jewels on anymore."

"I second that. Remember the Wart Powder incident, Charlie?" Fred raised his eyebrows and grinned broadly. "Oh yes, those were the good old days," he sighed exaggeratedly at Charlie's red face.

"So _that_ was why you kept on wearing my boxers," Bill said in realization, "you told me something about wearing rune patterned underwear to help you remember them."

Ron snorted loudly and Charlie turned to him, "Don't laugh, little bro. I know about the hot dog underwear collection you own. _Wishful thinking_, eh?"

Ron's face turned red and soon to a maroonish purple shade as the twins snickered.

"Alright, enough about underwear, let's get back to the point-" Hermione tried to refocus them, hoping to be able to have her two feet back on the ground soon.

"Say, Hermione. Why is your face so red? I don't recall any of _your_ intimate clothing being mentioned," George raised an eyebrow in Hermione's direction.

"_Forge_! How could you be so inconsiderate. Of course our dear Hermione knows about Ronnekin's underwear. Goodness knows how she can stand snogging him after watching him eat," Fred said as he shook his head, "young people nowadays."

"We're not snogging! Back to Ginny!" Ron snapped at his brothers. Charlie cleared his throat, but looked like he was about to laugh when he saw the red faces of Ron and Hermione.

"So how can we get her out?" Harry asked, his eyes glanced sideways for a second at Ron's tomato-like colour on his face.

"Would dragons work? Dragons have a tough layer of skin that can defect many spells and hexes," Charlie suggested.

"But what if the dragon gets in and the person riding it gets thrown out? And how are we going to bring dragons here anyways? Even if we could bring them here, where will we keep them?" Hermione challenged the idea and seemed to have regained some of her composure, her face now pink instead of red.

"Well, I could send an owl to Romania and have it arranged. We could bring one of the tamer dragons here. I trained one named Knobster a few years back-"

"_Now_ I know where Ron got the idea of hot dog boxers from," George cut him off and even Harry snorted.

"I don't wear those anymore, okay? At least I'm not naming pets after-"

"If you guys keep going on being perverted, we'll never get out of here. We need to concentrate! Now shut up about the whole underwear thing!" Hermione said in a voice that rivalled Mrs. Weasley's tone of authority. "Bill, can you figure out how to break the spells?"

"I'll need time. This isn't the sort of ordinary ward of hexes you'd see in an Egyptian tomb. Some of it looks as if it might be dark magic. It'll probably be helpful to have someone else from the Order to have a look at it. You said the wards were set up by Grindelwald?"

"Well, from the map we found in the library, it looks like it."

"This could take a while, I worked on one of the tombs in Egypt that was cursed by Grindelwald," Bill said as he began studying the pattern of lines on the mist.

"How long did it take?" Charlie asked.

Before Bill could respond, Harry suddenly pointed at the mist.

"Look, it's fading!"

Everyone turned to where he was pointing and sure enough, the mist was slowly drifting away and becoming less dense, revealing a patch of green…

A jolt of energy seemed to surge through Draco's veins when his lips finally captured hers. The gentle motion of her lips awakening his senses, his hands on the small of her back, her delicate hands raking through his hair. Ecstasy seemed to overcome his senses as he finally removed one hand from her body and reached out to touch the door. He felt the magic in his blood, the energy transferring from his hand to the door.

When he felt the energy stop leaving his body, there was a sudden loud crack and they broke the kiss. Ginny's eyes were wide with shock from the sudden sound and the after effects of the kiss. She could still feel the heat of his lips against hers and the touch of his skin on her body.

There was another loud crack and this time, both of their eyes looked up, one of the support beams of the roof snapped.

"The house is collapsing, we need to get out of here," Ginny tried to wrench the door open, but the knob seemed to be stuck.

"The counter-curse worked though, I felt it," he said as the tell-tale sound of another crack told him otherwise.

"We'll figure out what went wrong later, we need to get out of here, help me!" she commanded and both of them threw their bodies on the door and tried to pull. There was a low rumbling sound from the other side of the house and a part of the ceiling began to sink. A loud crash forced them to turn around and the support beams of the house seemed to have finally gave out and the ceiling came crashing down.

Draco wordlessly threw himself on top of Ginny as the force of wood hitting wood vibrated throughout their bodies. Afterwards, the air seemed to be abnormally still and the earlier sounds of cracks and crashes were replaced with low hissing noises.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he tried to get off of her but only succeeded in bumping his head against a beam that laid horizontally over two piles of splintered wood surrounding him and Ginny. If the two of them had been standing just two inches more to the right or left, Draco would have been crushed to death by the force of the roof and Ginny would have been severely injured.

"Yeah, I think I am," she replied, her voice muffled underneath him, "you?"

"I'm alright," he replied and then groaned when he felt his right arm throbbing, "well, I'll survive."

"Er, can you get off me?" she asked awkwardly, the weight of his body on her was causing her to blush like a glowing fire.

"I'm kind of stuck here, I'll try and move a little so I'm not so heavy on you," he tried to move his arms and legs to prop himself up, but his right arm was injured and couldn't hold up any weight. He lost balance and his left hand brushed against her bottom when he tried to regain balance.

"Sorry," he mumbled and put more of his body on his left, "does this feel better?"

"Yeah," she replied and Draco realized how this position would have looked like from an outsider's point of view if they were both naked. He was straddling her hips and his chest was rubbing against her back. He felt his body react instantly and prayed that his handcrafted, Italian made, one hundred percent English Wool trousers would prevent Ginny from feeling anything. But she was too overwhelmed by everything from them being trapped in some unknown place to her only hope of escaping, the house, collapsing, to actually notice what his body was reacting,

"I guess this is it," Ginny softly whispered, her voice trembling slightly, "this is it." All this time, she tried her best to stay optimistic. She tried her best to believe that eventually, she will see her family again. Now that this house collapsed, it seemed that hope was collapsing along with it.

"No it isn't," he said as he lifted up one hand to gently stroke her cheek.

"I want to go home," she said in the same tone of voice as before and Draco felt a small stabbing pain in his chest. He didn't want to go, he wanted to stay here with her, even if it meant being trapped in this small space forever. He knew that once they were out of here and with their families, it will all change and nothing will be the same again. He didn't think that Ginny would want to be with her family more than with him, even if it made perfect sense in every possible way. She knew and loved her family all her life and she had only stopped hating him a few weeks ago.

What if she really didn't like him in that way and she was only kissing him because they needed to break the curse? If it was with any other girl, he would have shagged her by now. He wouldn't have spent three weeks alone in the middle of nowhere with her without attempting to sleep with her. With Ginny, things were just different. He hated this _control_ she almost seemed to have over him. He hated the fact that only she alone could have the ability to make him feel his heart hurt. What he hated the most was despite all these complicated emotions she caused, he still couldn't hate her.

"It's alright, everything will be alright," he continued talking in a soothing voice and stroking her cheek. He let his fingers occasionally brush against her lips.

"If we didn't have to break the curse, would you still have kissed me?" she asked boldly. If she was going to die here, she might as well have all the answers.

She closed her eyes and felt the loneliness of the fallen house, even the distant hissing sounds did nothing to break the silence. It felt like she was the only one in a big empty space. This house was their hope, their way out of here. This was now destroyed. Even the slight pressure of Draco's warm body against her back didn't do much to comfort her. He didn't understand, she could tell by his tone that he didn't understand the feeling of family and how much she missed them.

"Yes, I would have still kissed you," he replied, she could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck. The combination of body heat in close quarters and the feeling of his touch was making it incredibly hot.

"I saw you by the stream that day, you know," she said, she felt his pulse race.

"What?"

"I saw you that night when I was taking a bath," she said as she slowly turned around so she could see his face.

"I-I…didn't mean to-" he stuttered.

"I know," she reached out to touch his face, his lips hovered centimetres over her own.

"Would you have done it?" he asked.

"Done what?"

"Kissed me," she replied and he responded by kissing her. By pressing his lips against her and letting his explanation pour out of him with his mouth, he ran his tongue lightly across her lips and she parted them. He tasted her lips, her teeth, her mouth, her passion, returning her feelings with equally strong emotions of his own.

"I would have kissed you too," she whispered in his lips when they finally parted for air.

The hissing noise that surrounded the house grew louder and louder as their lips met again, Ginny suddenly heard a familiar voice.

"Oi! What's going on here?"

**A/N** I'm actually a bit uncertain with the portrayal of Draco's character in this chapter, do you guys think I should do a rewrite? (This is very important, I need to know, even if it's a simple 'yes' or 'no')


	14. Rescue and Reunion

-1Chapter 14

"Oi! What's going on here?" the unmistakeable voice of her brother, Ronald Weasley, snapped Ginny out of the trance-like kiss with Draco. She turned to the direction of his voice, she saw them on the ground with broomsticks by their sides, all her red-headed siblings along with Harry and Hermione.

She ran up to them and gave them all hugs with the same oxygen-depriving squeeze that her mother was famous for. She couldn't believe it, there they were, standing right in front of her, in flesh. It seemed so long since she saw their familiar freckled-faces or heard their voices.

"Are you alright?" Bill asked in a concerned voice as he turned her around, examining her for wounds.

"I'm fine, I missed you so much," she threw her arms around his neck and hung on the way she did when she was little. As much as she hated their protectiveness, she missed being around her brothers.

"Look's like little Gin-Gin's all grown up," Bill laughed and picked her up, "might want to consider a diet," he teasingly added and she punched his arm. The reunion was interrupted by a yell from the direction of the fallen house, as she directed her gaze over to the yell, she couldn't believe it, the rubble of the fallen house wasn't there. It was just a patch of grass, there was no stream, no wood, no fallen ceiling, just land.

The yell had come from Draco as Ron was pining him on the ground and slamming his fist in Draco's face.

"What were you doing to my sister? Why were you trapping her here?" he growled and held Draco by the collar.

"I wasn't doing anything to her, you buffoon and I wasn't trapping her here," Draco replied with equal contempt as he pulled Ron's hand away from his neck, "and keep your filthy hands off me."

Bill put Ginny gently back on the ground and headed over to Draco with Charlie and the twins. Harry and Hermione were already with Ron and looked as if they were torn between pulling Ron off Draco and joining in the fight. Hermione was eying Draco curiously.

"Yes, Malfoy, what were you doing with my sister," Charlie pulled his wand out and pointed it at Draco's heart. The rest of them followed his example and had their wands trained on him.

"I said, I wasn't doing anything to her! Are you all deaf or were you too poor to learn how to speak English?" he sneered and stood up while brushing dirt off his clothes, "besides, your wands won't work here."

Ginny ran over to the interrogation court that her brothers seemed to have set up just as Fred fired a Stinging Hex at Draco and he fell back, surprised at the force of the spell.

"What are you all doing?" Ginny asked and ran over to help Draco up, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine, if your oafish brothers would stop thinking that I kidnapped you," he replied and Ginny glared at him for the last part of his replied and then turned to glare at her brothers for the first part.

"What are you staring at us like that for? He deserved it," George retorted while inwardly thinking that the resemblance of his little sister to his mother was just plain scary, especially when she put her hands on her hips.

"He didn't kidnap-" she began to explain but Draco broke free of Ron's grasp and was about to punch him back but was stopped by Harry, who kicked his leg from behind.

"What did you do that for?" Ginny asked Draco angrily.

"He hit me for no reason, I was just giving him what he deserved," he retorted and George was about to throw a punch at him but was stopped by Ginny.

"Can you all stop trying to kill each other for a second and let me explain what happened?" she screamed loudly and George winced.

"Now I know why that singing Valentine sounded so horrid," Fred whispered and George snickered. Ginny turned red from a combination of anger and embarrassment at the memory. Harry looked away and pretended he didn't hear the comment.

"First of all, I was _not_ kidnapped by Draco-"

"When were you and Malfoy on first-name basis?" Ron demanded and was silenced by a 'Mrs. Weasley imitation glare' from Ginny.

"That's not the point and he didn't do anything to me."

"He was pining you underneath him!" Charlie pointed out.

"I-We were-"she began but Draco interrupted her.

"There's obviously nothing going on between me and little weasel, what makes you think, me, Draco Malfoy, needs to resort to the likes of her to get laid?" He smirked.

Ginny looked at him, trying to see what he was trying to do. His eyes softened for a split second when they met hers, she knew he was trying to hide their relationship from her brothers in fear of being pummelled. She didn't like the idea of that at all, what power did her brothers have to interfere with her love life anyways?

"We-" she began and was once again cut off at Draco, who seemed to be pleading for her not to say anything with his eyes.

"…were wrestling," he finished off for her, "she was calling me a bloody wanking ferret."

"Ginny, what happened?" Bill said, trying to take control before the glares of his brothers turned to murdering hexes.

"We were playing Quidditch over the lake and Draco came over taunting us, so I took our Quaffle and decided to throw it at him, but when we reached the island there was this gust of wind and we fell, landing in a forest."

"So how did you get from the forest to here?" Charlie asked sceptically.

"Did you cast some dark spell on her?" Fred demanded and growled in Draco's face.

"Our wands don't even work here, try it if you don't believe me," Draco retorted.

"_Stupefy_!" George shouted and Draco was out cold.

"He's lying, we better bring him back and get the Order to question him, it might be some plan from You-Know-Who," Charlie suggested and they began hauling him off his feet.

"He's not lying! Our wands didn't work when we first got here, we tried to hex each other but nothing happened!" she explained, which only angered her brothers even more.

"So he tried to hex you? The little bugger," Ron moved up ready to curse him before Hermione put a hand on his arm.

"You're underage, you'll get in trouble if you do magic out of school," she said, her eyes met Ginny's, she obviously could tell there was something going on between Draco and Ginny.

"Fine, I won't use magic then," he moved towards Draco, prepared to kick him in his sensitive male area.

"Let's just get Ginny back to the cabin first, she's had a rough time for the last couple of weeks, she needs some rest," Hermione calmly said and gripped his wrist.

"So we're just letting him go?" Harry demanded angrily.

"He'll suffer more when Moody gets to him, no point of having us beat him into a pulp, he won't be able to feel it when the Order uses their…special spells on him," Charlie explained, "besides, Hermione's right, Ginny needs some rest."

"Alright, should we Apparate or get back on these," Fred gestured to his broom.

"Well Apparating would be faster, if we rode on brooms, someone would be stuck with the ferret boy," George said.

"But there might be wards on this island, something nasty might happen if you try to Apparate, plus there are four of us that don't know how to do it," Hermione once again pointed out.

"I guess we better be on the safe side and go on brooms, but there might be some sort of Trapping Jinx to stop us from leaving like in the pyramids in Egypt."

"One of us should go first in case something happens, the others can get help," Charlie agreed with Bill.

"I'll go, I have experience in dealing with these things," Bill volunteered and mounted his broom.

"Alright, if I take Malfoy, we're still short one broom, someone needs to share," Charlie began organizing.

"Why don't we let the two lovebirds share, they're holding hands already anyways," Fred pointed at Ron and Hermione, she was still holding his wrist and didn't realize it until now. She immediately let go and both of them blushed furiously.

"Shut it you two!" Ron glared at the twins.

"We weren't holding hands," Hermione retorted.

"Ah, bless their hearts, already acting like a married couple," George pretended to wipe invisible tears from his eyes. Even Bill grinned amusingly.

"If you two won't quit acting like idiots, we'll never get back!" Hermione continued, her face red like a beet.

"I'm going to fly out right now, if I set off some sort of jinx, don't wait to save me, fly or run away to get help, alright?" Bill asked.

"I swear Moody's rubbing off him," Ron muttered as Bill kicked off and zoomed through the hole in the fog. After about five minutes, it seemed that there were no wards on the island after all and they all mounted their brooms with Charlie trying hard to keep an unconscious Draco from sloping off to the left and slipping off the broom.

"I guess you and Ron are sharing a broom after all," Ginny smiled innocently at Hermione's blushing face for the first time since her brothers found her.

Ron and Hermione were both looking at the broom nervously, not sure how they would ride on it together by maintaining as little contact as possible so the twins wouldn't be making fun of them. They both reached out at the same time and their hands touched.

"Sorry, you can go first," Hermone muttered.

"No, you can go first," Ron held his hand out like a butler for a moment before withdrawing it, blushing even more.

"Umm that's alright, you can go first."

"So do you want to be in the front or back?"

"Back I suppose, I'm not that great at steer-"

"Will you two hurry up already? You can talk and snog all you want once we get back, I'll even promise to cover up for you," Fred shouted, hovering through the air and grinning at the sight of two blushing people on the ground.

"Oh, alright then," Ron climbed onto the front and Hermione to the back.

"I'll have to put my arms around you, do you mind?" she asked.

"Yes, I don't mind. I mean, no I don't mind. Yes, you can put your arms…around me," Ron stuttered and he swore Hermione could hear his heart beating furiously.

They finally mounted their broom and kicked off to the intense relief and amusement to Harry and the rest of the Weasleys.

Harry flew a little distance away from Ron and Hermione, not wanting to interrupt whatever conversation they might be having. It was kind of funny and sad for him at the same time to see them like this. It was pretty obvious that they had feelings beyond friendship for each other, but neither was willing to admit that first of course. So where did this leave him? He only had one disastrous date with Cho and one kiss with her while she was sobbing like a human hosepipe over her ex-boyfriend. He imagined himself growing old alone while Ron and Hermione had a dozen red, bushy haired children. That is, if Voldemort didn't kill him before this happened.

He almost flew into Ginny and expertly dodged her at the last second. He didn't notice this before, but she was actually quite pretty. She had long, flowing red hair, bright caramel eyes, and long, slim legs. She was also fiercely loyal and brave, judging by the way she stuck by her friends at the Department of Mysteries last year. Also, the way she stuck by him.

On the other hand, she was Ron's little sister and after spending months hearing about Ron talking about castration plans on Michael Corner and Dean Thomas. It wouldn't be very wise to think about her in any way beyond friendship.

They finally arrived at the cabin and Mrs. Weasley ran out to greet them, seeing Ginny, she immediately burst into tears and engulfed her in a fierce hug. Ginny hugged her mother back, it felt like a long time since she was in her mother's oxygen depriving arms.

"Ginny, you're back! My little Ginny-binny! Are you alright, are you hurt? What happened? Oh my baby!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed rapidly.

"Mum, I'm alright, I'm not hurt," she reassured her mother while struggling to breathe. Mrs. Weasley finally let go of her daughter to examine her for any visible injuries. "You're looking so thin, I'm going to have to put some weight back on that body," she began fussing over her youngest daughter, exclaiming about how she must have starved for three weeks.

"I didn't starve, I'm perfectly fine," Ginny retorted.

"Nonsense, I want you showered and in bed resting now. I'll wake you up when I've fixed up some food. I need to tell your father, oh he'll be so happy!" she set off to find her husband before being stopped by Bill.

"We need to contact the Order to figure out what to do with him," Bill gestured to the unconscious Draco that was lying on the ground.

"Is that Lucius Malfoy's son? What is he doing here?"

"We found him on the island with Ginny, we brought him back to question him just in case this has to do with You-Know-Who."

"Ginny, were you tortured by Death Eaters? Were you cursed? We better get you to St. Mungos!"

"I'm fine, I wasn't tortured by Draco, he didn't hurt me, we were both trapped there," Ginny tried to explain.

"That boy is no good, we should alert the Order," Mrs. Weasley agreed with her son, "what happened to him?"

"He said that wands didn't work on the island and Fred stunned him," Ron replied.

"So where is this _island_ anyways? I woke up this morning and all of you were gone! I was worried sick! What if something happened to all of you?" she scolded, remembering the worry that she momentarily forgot when she saw Ginny.

"Well, Hermione had a plan and we figured that we might as well give it a go-"

"Without telling me? I am very disappointed in you, William, I would have thought you had more sense than that."

"We're not babies anymore, and we're of age already," Fred retorted which brought Mrs. Weasley into more of her lecture.

"Then its even more irresponsible of you! Dragging those three in the middle of the night, flying over a lake, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"

"I'm going to take a shower now," Ginny quickly headed to the bathroom before her mother moved on to lecturing them for playing Quidditch over the lake in the first place.

"I'm kind of tired, I think I'll have a nap before dinner," Harry quickly followed, wincing when he heard Mrs. Weasley finally moving onto their Quidditch game a couple of weeks ago.

"-absolutely irresponsible and dangerous, what if one of you fell off the broom!"

Harry headed into the bedroom that he and Ron shared he could hear strains of Mrs. Weasley's lecture. The room was right next to the bathroom and he could hear the sound of Ginny showering, the sound of water spraying against her bare skin. The sound was strangely intoxicating, he could almost see her in the shower stall, lathering body wash on her breasts, her legs, rubbing shampoo into her brilliantly red hair and massaging it into her scalp.

But this was Ron's sister, little Ginny Weasley, he felt kind of perved for thinking about her in that way. What would Ron think? He would probably break off their friendship altogether. What about Mrs. Weasley? She had shown him nothing but kindness and here he was under her roof and imagining her daughter naked. He was disgusted with himself. But why was he thinking about Ginny like that? She was the girl who sent a singing valentine to him, who used to get so nervous around him that she would put her elbow in the butter dish. Could it be that little Ginny Weasley had finally grown up?


	15. A Silver of Moonlight

-1Chapter 15

It was August 31st, tomorrow was the start of a new school year, new beginnings, same feelings. A mixture of dread and excitement clouded the Burrow as everyone struggled to pack any last minute possessions before going to bed. Ginny dragged her trunk by her door before climbing into her bed just as Hermione walked in.

They both sat on their beds, Ginny could tell that Hermione wanted to confront her about something, she looked slightly agitated and seemed to have trouble approaching whatever subject she was trying to talk to Ginny about.

"Is there something you want to talk to me about?"

"What happened between you and Draco Malfoy?"

It was a subject Ginny didn't want to talk much about. She hadn't heard from Draco since the Order 'escorted' him back home. The Weasleys along with Harry and Hermione left the resort and headed back to the Burrow three days after they found Ginny. She left the cabin with a strange sort of longing even though she barely spent any time there. She wanted to send a letter to Draco, but there was a part of her that wanted him to do it first. She wanted him to apologize first for refusing to acknowledge their relationship in front of her brothers. She kept waiting for the letter to come, it never did. She made up excuses for him. Maybe his parents didn't want him communicating with her. Maybe he was locked up in his room and kept a close watch upon. Or maybe, he had forgotten about her.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked concernedly when she saw the expression on Ginny's face.

"I'm fine, sorry, what were you saying?"

"What happened between you and Draco Malfoy?"

"Its…" she hesitated, not sure how to reply.

She and Hermione were not exactly close friends, they were in different years and she had her own group of friends away from the trio. Occasionally, they had the type of heart to heart talks girls had with each other. She hated Hermione back when she was still infatuated with Harry, believing that she was stealing Harry away from her. That was all in the past, but like any other Gryffindor, Hermione was prejudiced against Slytherins in general, particularly Draco Malfoy. If Hermione told Ron, Ron would probably attempt to murder Draco and pull some stupid scheme to make sure she and Draco did not get together.

"Something must have happened, Ginny, I know it. There are wards on that island placed by Grindelwald himself, dark magic. Only a really powerful wizard or witch can break the wards, either that or harnessing love as energy," Hermione looked at Ginny at that point, hazel met hazel. She seemed to know the answer before asking the question.

"I'm kind of tired, I'm going to sleep now," she said instead of replying to Hermione's remark.

"I'm just going to say this from a friend's perspective, not as your brother's friend. But being in a relationship with Draco Malfoy is dangerous, there's plenty of other boys at Hogwarts. Harry seems to be interested in you," Hermione said before turning off the lamp.

Even as darkness engulfed the room, Ginny found that her eyes were wide open, she just could not sleep.

"Draco! I missed you so much! Where were you this summer anyways?" Pansy Parkinson ran up to Draco and gave him a hug, as well as a kiss at the corner of his mouth, trying to pretend she accidentally missed, of course. She made sure there was pelvic contact before pulling away.

"Just here and there, how are you, Pansy?" He returned the customary gesture of kissing her cheek and asked politely.

They had known each other since infancy and their friendship was not exactly platonic. He knew he would never like her that way but occasionally, the kissed and sometimes they did more than just kiss. They never discussed this and they both knew how Draco felt towards their relationship.

Even though Pansy was not attractive by typical standards, she made up for her looks in charm and breeding. Like all the other children from wealthy Pureblood families, she was taught the manners and proper behaviour of the upper class.

"I'm alright, besides from missing you of course," she added, "how is _Drakie Poo_ doing?" she reached for his thigh and her hand steadily climbed up to where _Drakie Poo_ was.

"For Merlin's sake Pansy! What are you doing?" he growled and reached for her wrist, flinging it away from his groin.

"Just checking if _Drakie Poo_ misses me," she purred, smiling seductively. Her voice and smile seemed to have no effect at all on Draco today as he only seemed to be annoyed with her.

"Stop calling it _Drakie Poo_!" he demanded in a menacing whisper. Keeping calm and composed in any situation was one of the first things any Pureblood child learned. Unless of course, something could be gained by a false loss of composure. Over the years, Potter and his little gang was responsible for all his cases of public embarrassment. Hence, the reason for his desire to take revenge on him.

_Of course, Scarhead is a dolt anyways, deserves to have his head pounded to the right direction._

Thinking about Harry Potter reminded him of Ginny. He hadn't written to her or talked to her since he was knocked unconscious during the rescue of her brothers. The next thing he knew when he woke up, he was surrounded by the members of the Order of the Phoenix, each demanding to know whether or not he kidnapped or harmed Ginny in any way. After hours of interrogating, he was finally 'escorted' back to Malfoy Manor. He spent the rest of his summer at home. His father was furious that he was 'captured' by the Order of the Phoenix and forbid him to leave the grounds of the estate.

He wanted to write to Ginny and apologize for not telling her brothers about their relationship. He saw the fury in her eyes, the unquenchable anger, almost to the same degree as her passion and naked emotion she had when they kissed. But every time he picked up his quill, all the words he had in his mind just seemed wrong. It all looked so stupid on parchment.

'I'm really sorry about not telling your brothers that we're together so they won't chop off my family jewels' didn't seem like a very appropriate apology note.

'I couldn't say that we were together because your idiotic brothers would make sure I died a very gruesome death' didn't sound that great either.

'Thinking about how you look when your angry makes me want to feel your lips' missed the point entirely.

'I had a dream last night about you bathing in the stream' made him sound very perverted.

'Ever since we've kissed, I always seem to need to polish my wand' sounded entirely dirty and the apology wasn't even in it.

In the end, he simply fed his apologies to the fire and hoped that when he apologized to Ginny in person, she would happily accept them the way his fireplace had.

"Draco, are you alright?" Pansy asked, her voice etched with concern at his lack of reaction to where her hand currently was placed.

"Yes I am, and stop putting your hand there," he growled and reached for her hand to remove it. At the exact moment, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and the Weasleys arrived. Ginny looked as if she was going to greet him, but seeing him holding Pansy's hand, she looked sharply away and quickly boarded the train.

_Maybe she's afraid that she won't be able to resist shagging my brains out this instant if she looks too closely at me._

"I'm always amazed how you could stand to be with such filth, Weasley. But that's not much I suppose, seeing that you live in a pigsty yourself," Draco smirked. He couldn't resist taunting Weasley, not when he was the reason why Ginny wasn't looking at him right now. If it weren't for their stupid rescue, he and Ginny would still be happily together.

_Take that, you dirty weasel!_

"A ferret and a pig, a match made in heaven." Draco turned to see it was Ginny, her voice sharp like steel, barbed like wire. Her face, hard and unforgiving, arranged into a sneer as her eyes darted once again to how close Draco and Pansy were standing.

He tried to catch her eye, look into her endless brown orbs and see why she was looking at him like he was the enemy all of a sudden. Her voice, usually warm and gentle when speaking to him was suddenly cruel and harsh. On the other hand, maybe she was playing along with him, helping him conceal their relationship from the rest of Hogwarts.

"Looks like the little weasel's jealous that her precious Potter isn't paying her any attention while I have Draco here," Pansy simpered, oozing false concern in her voice.

"Back off Parkinson," Harry said as he stepped protectively in front of Ginny to show that Pansy's accusations were false.

"I don't need a hero to protect me, Harry," Ginny snapped before stomping angrily onto the Hogwarts Express, leaving the rest of them to battle it out.

_Take that, Potter! Draco-1 Potter-0_

"Alright, patrols will begin tomorrow night starting with the Hufflepuff sixth year Prefects, then so on following the schedule you just received. If you have any questions, you can ask one of us or Filch for help," Katie Bell, the Head Girl added the last part with a touch of amusement in her voice. Nobody liked to make any sort of contact with Filch in any way if they could help it. He would probably threaten to dangle them outside the castle in chains for plotting against him with other students if they actually tried to ask them any questions.

Draco had tried, unsuccessfully for the entire meeting to catch Ginny's eye. She seemed unnaturally focused on what the Head Boy and Girl had to say. In fact, her concentration seemed to rival Granger's today and everyone knew Granger would take notes on how fast grass grew if it would help maintain her perfect academic record. Ginny was sitting beside some mousy Gryffindor Mudblood, was it Colin Pervy? Colin Creepy? Whatever the little prick's name was, he was in the way.

Fortunately for Draco, Mudblood Colin wasn't leaning against the back of his chair, if he could lean over and reach out a little, he could throw a note on Ginny's lap. He slowly and carefully took the note he had already written from his pocket, his eyes still on the Head Boy and Girl, he tilted his body a little more to the right, casually reached out and tossed the note over.

He sensed Collin Somebody shift his body slightly, but of course, he would be too stupid to notice anything, right?

Draco was thinking about how ingenious his plan was when he realized the meeting ended and everyone was leaving the carriage. He stood up and turned abruptly to the exit and accidentally bumped into a soft body. His eyes caught a flash of red and he reached out instinctively to catch her. Her soft brown eyes met his grey ones for a split second and at that moment with his strong hand on the small of her back, she caught the familiar scent of his body and for a split-second, she felt the same lingering touch of his body against hers.

"I'll see you tonight," he murmured and she felt suddenly confused. What was that supposed to mean?

Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw Pansy Parkinson approaching them, this morning's events suddenly came back to her. He was just playing with her like she was some kind of toy.

"Let go of me!" she stood up and pushed him away before storming out the door, leaving Draco wondering whether she was a really good actress or there was something else going on.

Ginny left the Prefects carriage to find Colin looking very shaken in the compartment that they were sharing with a couple of other Gryffindors.

"Colin, are you alright?" she asked concernedly, putting a hand on his arm while taking a seat beside him. He jerked away and seemed to be hiding something in his pocket.

"I'm fine, very fine, just a bit nervous being a Prefect and all, you know?" he seemed to be saying all of this really quickly and his hands were clenching his pocket, where she saw him slip a piece of parchment in just seconds before.

"Does this have something to do with whatever you're hiding in your pocket?" she asked with an eyebrow raised in an almost Luna-like expression and Colin seemed to panic even more and shifted away from her as if afraid she could read his mind.

"I'm not hiding anything! Its fine! Everything's fine!" he practically shouted, "I'm going to read ahead at my lessons now!" he scooted right to the window, pulled out his Charms textbook and began reading…upside down.

"You are a really bad liar, you know?" she moved closer to him and he began adapting the look of a mouse being backed into a corner by a cat.

"I'll tell you tomorrow, okay?" he went back to hiding behind his book, his hands trembling.

"Well if you need to talk, I'll be there," she said, moving away from him to give him some space.

First, Harry seems overly eager to defend her, Malfoy is apparently with Pansy but seems to act as if there was something still between them in the Prefects' Carriage, and now Colin acts like he's being held at wand point by Voldemort. This was an odd beginning to what may be an odder year.

As Zeikly, George was sorted to Ravenclaw, Dumbledore stood up, holding out his arms as if embracing the whole of Hogwarts. The chattering died down and everyone focused their attention on the Headmaster, except for a couple of the Slytherins. Draco turned his attention once again to Ginny. Why wasn't she looking at him at all? He had spent almost twenty minutes training his lovely, Pureblood eyes on her. How could she not notice?

Beside her, that Colin kid seemed to dart his eyes back and forth. Must be some sort of imbecile.

"I won't distract the symphonies of your growling stomachs with speeches, tuck in!" Dumbledore said as food magically on the tables, the Great Hall suddenly filled with the clinking of cutlery and the sounds of satisfied taste buds.

Draco tried to catch Ginny's eye again, but she seemed to be absorbed in some conversation with Potter, who was sitting on her other side. Colin-the-mouse seemed to turn his eyes towards Draco for a second before looking frantically to the other side.

_Mudbloods, they're all a bunch of lunatics. Look at Granger!_

He noticed there was something about the way Potter was tilting his body towards Ginny and nodding at what she was saying. There was something definitely very wrong about that.

"Hey, heard you got kidnapped, Draco!" Theodore Nott said in an almost taunting voice. The Slytherin circle wasn't very big and rumours travelled fast.

"I heard it was those Blood-Traitors, so what happened?" Blaise Zabini added with a brief smirk. Suddenly, their end of the table was quiet as everyone waited to hear Draco's response.

"I was performing a task for my father," he lied smoothly, "something to do with the Dark Lord of course. Not that you would know about that," he said, knowing it would make them jealous.

"I suppose your _task_ wasn't completed successfully if the Phoenix lot had to drag you home, eh?" Nott tore apart his lie viciously.

Before the conversation could be continued any further, Dumbledore stepped up to the podium and all the food vanished from the tables.

"Welcome to another year of magical education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! To the old students, welcome back to another year of further enriching your minds with the aid of our wonderful group of professors and maybe a treacle tart or two. To our new students, I extend a special welcome and I promise you will find the school a wonderful place to live and learn. I would like to remind you all that no student is allowed to enter the Forbidden Forest and Mr. Filch would like to say that any nasal harassment of fellow students or staff members with mate attracting products would be punished most severely. Now I would like the Prefects to please lead their houses back to their common rooms. Good night!" he dismissed the students and Draco tried for a final time to catch Ginny's eye before standing up to lead the new group of Slytherins to the common room.

It was finally midnight, Draco had waited for the entire night for the clock to finally strike twelve. After what seemed like an eternity of not kissing her lips, he wanted to so much to feel them against his own. He quietly exited the Slytherin Common Room and headed for the path to the Astronomy Tower. He ascended the stone steps quietly to find someone already there. Could it be Ginny? Or was it…

"Mudblood Colin!" Draco screamed when he saw the mousy form of Colin Creevy instead of Ginny standing there waiting for him.

"I've come here to tell you…to t-t-tell you…" he seemed to be trembling and in the moonlight, Draco could see that his pathetic face had turned chalk white.

"What the hell are you doing here, Mudblood?"

"T-the note, you-you gave me…the-"

"What note? I didn't give you a bloody note!" he demanded angrily.

"You-you threw it over…Prefects' meeting…touching me," he continued his half ramble and tremble while Draco's eyes widened at what he was implying.

"For bloody Merlin's sake, I'm not _you know_. I'm perfectly straight and narrow!"

"Its alright, I won't tell anyone," Colin seemed to stop stuttering when he 'realized' that Draco was scared that his 'secret' was being revealed.

"I'm telling you! I like girls!"

"Its not a disease being gay-"

"Are you coming on to me!" Draco stared at him with wide eyes.

"I'm trying to say that you don't have to lie to me! I won't tell anyone! And I'm really flattered that you like me but I only like girls," Colin seemed to be putting on his sympathetic face and it was making Draco's blood boil with the temptation to throw him off the Astronomy Tower.

"For Merlin's sake you imbecile, what part of I'm not gay do you not understand!"

"I'm not blind Malfoy, I felt the hints you were giving me," Colin continued with that _understanding_ face of his.

"I wasn't giving you any bloody hints!"

"I felt you try to put your arm around me in the meeting-"

"I was trying to pass someone a note!" Draco said with gritted teeth.

"I won't tell anyone, please don't hurt me! "

"Why do you have that note anyways? It wasn't supposed to be for you!"

"You threw it…on my lap, I saw you and you were always looking at me during the feast-"

"I wasn't looking at _you-_" Draco was about to explain to Colin for the umpteenth time that he was in fact very much liked girls and in no way wanted any type of relationship with Colin when he was interrupted by a sound at the door.

Standing there with a look of shock and amusement was Ginny Weasley, the one Draco had meant to meet tonight.

"Ginny? How did you-" Colin began but was cut off by her response.

"I went to your dormitory looking for you and I found the note on your bed," she explained.

"For Merlin's sake, leave us alone, Mudblood-"

"Oh!" the realization dawned on Colin as his face began slowly turning red. "You're trying to meet Ginny and you're not…oh! I'm-you know…I-"

"Just leave!" Draco demanded and Colin began turning around.

"Don't go yet, Colin! I have nothing to say to Malfoy, I just came here because I was worried about you," Ginny began walking towards the exit of the Astronomy Tower before Draco grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Wait, Ginny-"

"Let go of me! Do you seriously expect me to have anything to say to you after you playing with my feelings when you were with Pansy Parkinson all along repeatedly insulting my friend?" she demanded angrily.

"Look, I can explain, just get him to leave," he let go of her arm and moved to stroke her cheek instead.

"I don't want to hear anything you have to say!" she pushed his hand angrily off her face.

"I don't like Pansy that way, alright? She's only a friend and I wasn't insulting your Mud-_Muggleborn _friend He kept saying I was gay, for Merlin's sake, you can't blame me for getting mad when he kept ignoring my explanations can you? I mean, I come here expecting to meet you and instead I meet him," he shot Colin a dirty look over her shoulder while saying the last part.

"I saw you hugging her and she kissed you on the lips! Don't even try to deny it!"

"So I hugged her, friends hug each other. You've hugged this imbecile," he gestured to Colin who was now slipping out the door while Ginny glared at him, "fine, fine, this _bloke_. Friends hug each other, big deal! She didn't kiss me on the lips, she was kissing me on the cheek and she missed alright? I wouldn't bother trying to meet you here tonight if I wanted her."

"You won't even admit to my brothers that we were together! If you wanted me so badly, you could have told me how much you missed me when you saw me at the train station! You could have at least written me a letter!"

"If I told your brothers that we were together they would have pummelled me to death and its better that we keep this a secret for now. If people find out, how do you think your Gryffindor friends are going to react? How do you think my friends are going to react? They're going to think that we betrayed our houses. Its bad enough that the Creepy or Pervy kid seems to know-"

"Its Creevy, Colin Creevy," she interrupted.

"Okay, _Creevy_ knows. It'll just be a lot easier if we don't have the whole of Hogwarts hating us," he explained and he saw her soften a little.

"But I don't like this. I know its stupid but its just that if we don't tell anyone, I'm afraid…" she trailed off a little and seemed hesitant to continue.

"Afraid of what?"

"I'm just afraid that one day you'll turn around and say it was all a joke and I was stupid enough to believe it," she replied, avoiding his gaze.

"You don't think I feel the same when I see Potter looking at you? You don't think I want to tell Potter to back off and that you're my girlfriend? I don't want to see the Gryffindors turning on you or the Slytherins turning on me either."

"Harry and I are just friends-"

"The same way Pansy and I are just friends," he explained.

_Hopefully not doing things Pansy and I have done._

"My friends will understand and so will yours, if they are really true friends."

"Ginny, you don't get it. Slytherins don't do things the way Gryffindors do. Its not so much about friendship but more about _power_ and position. If I publicly announce that we're together, I'll be cast out. No one would want to be associated with me because I'm not a true Slytherin anymore." He saw that she seemed to change her mind a little at this.

"So you plan to hide this forever?" she asked, she looked at him with that special look on her. That look that made him melt like chocolate on a summer's day.

"Alright, I promise we won't have to hide this forever, just give me some time." He put one hand on her jaw, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "I promise that we won't have to keep this secret forever." He leaned down and kissed her lightly, she didn't push him off, she let the touch of his lips propel her mind away from her doubts and mixed feelings of disappointment and anger.


	16. The Sweetness of Strawberries

-1Chapter 16

After the Astronomy Tower incident, Colin seemed to blush whenever he looked at Ginny or Draco.

"We are currently turning flamingos pink, not our cheeks, Mr. Creevy," McGonagall said as she walked past Colin, who continued blushing redder and redder as Ginny attempted to help him with his wand movement.

"Why are you turning red all the time? Does this have something to do with the whole Draco incident?" Ginny whispered when McGonagall walked past.

"I still think he's a prat, but I said I would keep your secret," he replied and continued trying to change the colour of his flamingo.

"You don't have to be embarrassed over it, if I were you, I would have thought the same." She moved to where he was facing and he moved his head back to the other side.

"Well you wouldn't have missed the 'P.S. I missed you, Ginny' would you?" he replied with gritted teeth.

"Its just a little accident, I'm sure Draco's forgotten by now," she reassured, "wave your wand a bit longer, and then flick."

"I'm sure you two can have a nice laugh over stupid Colin and what an _imbecile _he was to think the shag king of Slytherin was a pouf," he growled angrily, jabbing his wand at his flamingo. The pink bird squawked loudly in response.

"You know I won't do that-"

"What do I know about you anyways? I thought you were a Gryffindor but now you go around shagging Draco Malfoy-"

"I'm not _shagging_ him-"

"Well, you're snogging him? Aren't you? He's a bloody Death Eater!"

"He's not a Death Eater," she insisted, glaring at him.

"Don't you remember all the times he's called us Mudbloods and Blood Traitors? Don't you remember how he bullies the little Hufflepuffs?"

"He's different when we're alone, its just an act he puts up."

"Yeah, and maybe you're just putting up an act by being nice to me. All along, I thought we were friends, now you're siding with _him_." The bell rang and he quickly walked out without waiting for Ginny.

She walked out of the classroom with a mixture of anger and sadness. Colin, out of all people, who was her friend since they met in the Hospital Wing at the end of her first year. She thought he would understand that Draco wasn't bad on the inside, he was just trying to fit in with the Slytherins. Maybe Draco had a point after all about keeping their relationship to themselves.

Deep in thought, she crashed right into a firm male chest in the corridor to the Great Hall.

"Sorry," she mumbled when she saw who it was. Even though she no longer had feelings for Harry, it still felt slightly embarrassing whenever he looked at her. His mind must be filled with memories of her pining after him.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he offered her a hand up in his gentlemanly fashion. If it was another boy, she wouldn't have taken it because this was the male way of showing girls that they're too weak to pick themselves up after they fall. But this was _Harry_ and even though she wasn't great friends with him, after he saved her life in the Chamber of Secrets, she always felt obliged to be just a little bit nicer to him.

"Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind," she took his hand and he pulled her up.

"Where's your next class?" he asked politely as she brushed herself off.

"Charms, you?"

"I have _Divination_," he groaned and Ginny laughed, "we're going the same way then."

"Yeah." She wondered what was the point of him mentioning this anyways. There was an awkward silence while she contemplated what was causing the odd tension between them.

"We might as well head over together," Harry suggested and she agreed.

"Where's Ron? Don't you two have Divination together?"

"He's having another row with Hermione and they both sounded like they wanted to bite my head off when I tried telling them that class was starting in fifteen minutes. I figured I might as well leave them at it," he replied with a smile, "those two are pretty obvious, aren't they?"

"To everyone else but each other. If they would stop screaming at each other for five minutes, maybe they could sit down long enough and figure out how to tell each other that they want to shag the other's brains out."

"This is your brother and my two best friends we're talking about, let's not go into the details," Harry blushed slightly at the redhead's words. Ginny found his pink tinged facial response amusing.

"Don't tell me you've never thought of that before," she teased as Harry feigned innocence.

"Thought about what?"

"You know, shagging someone's brains out?" She watched triumphantly as he turned bright red in her presence. Usually it was the other way around.

"I have not."

"Have to-"

"Have not-"

"Have to-"

"Have not-"

"I have six brothers, you know? I've lived through a decade and a half of mum trying to blast our eardrums apart when she finds a copy of Playwizard magazine underneath somebody's mattress."

"Now that you mention it, maybe we should really do something to get Ron and Hermione to finally get it through their stubborn heads that they really want each other," he said as they turned to the corridor on their right.

"I suppose we could try leaving them alone in The Three Broomsticks and see what a couple of Butterbeers could do," she suggested.

"Maybe we should meet up at Hogsmeade and give them a nudge in the right direction you know? I'm no good with this stuff and seeing that you're a girl…" he trailed off and looked nervously in her direction.

It was definitely a little odd that he would invite her to Hogsmeade. He had never really shown interest in wanting to be close friends or anything, but Collin was mad at her and didn't look like they would make up before Saturday. It might be nice to go with someone else for a change seeing that there would be no way Draco would agree to them going together.

"Sure," she agreed and his face broke into a wide smile, enhancing the glitter in his eyes.

"Looks like we have to split up here, see you on Saturday," he said and she turned right to the charms corridor while he continued straight to the North Tower.

Suddenly Hermone's words from the night before they returned to Hogwarts echoed back in Ginny's mind:

_Harry seems to be interested in you._

All of a sudden, everything from the way he acted to how he invited her to Hogsmeade made perfect sense. Unfortunately, now she would either have to tell Draco that she was going to Hogsmeade with his arch enemy or tell Harry that she didn't want to go with him.

"No way, Snape and Sinstra? That's sick!" Ginny exclaimed and laughed at the thought of the greasy Potions master and the plump Astronomy teacher being a couple. Her eyes caught the overcast moonlight grey linger of Draco's across the Great Hall. She picked up a strawberry and ran it teasingly over her red lips before taking a small bite. Some of the juice dribbled out of the corner of her mouth and stuck her tongue out a little and licked it. Draco gripped his glass of pumpkin juice a little tighter to keep his composure.

It became almost a daily ritual. When Ginny caught Draco staring at her with a hungry look in his eyes that the food in front of him would never satisfy, she would tease him, just a little. Then she would pretend that nothing out of the ordinary happened and go back to talking to her housemates.

Draco picked up his glass and tipped it slightly in her direction as of toasting her before taking a sip and resuming his meal. Ginny took her teasing a step further and 'dropped' her whipped cream covered strawberry on her shirt. Her partially unbuttoned school robes caused most of the whipped cream to end up on the white oxford shirt she wore on the inside.

As she tried cleaning up the whipped cream with a napkin, Draco choked on his pumpkin juice on the other side of the Great Hall. Blood was rushing evidently southward.

"_Pervert,"_ she mouthed playfully to him.

_Self control, self control, self control…_

"See Draco agrees with me that Chivio Warbaski is way better than Oliver Wood, right?" Blaise asked a clearly distracted Draco.

"Yeah, he's the breast," he nearly sputtered his potatoes at Pansy when he realized what he said, "_best_, yeah," he corrected himself hopefully smoothly.

Pansy obviously took this as a sign that Draco was distracted by the sight of her and reached her leg across the table and brushed it lightly against his. His leg was a bit more _muscular_ than she remembered but it didn't matter. Muscles were sexy anyways. Goyle grunted next to Draco.

She pushed her right shoe off with her left foot and ran her sock clad right foot _sexily_ against Draco's legs. Her toes slowly climbed outwards until she reached his _more softly muscular_ thighs. She gently kneaded those _muscles _with her toes. Draco started talking animatedly to Blaise about Quidditch, no reaction whatsoever to her sexy foot rubbing. She decided to take it a step further and innocently wiggled her toes against his groin.

"Pansy-" Goyle began and twitched a little.

"What?" she asked irritated, her foot left Draco's _muscular legs_ for a second.

"Nothing," he grunted and she resumed trying to play footsie with Draco.

What was wrong with him today anyways? He was ignoring her kinky foot rubbing! What could possibly be more sexy than having their own little foreplay game in the Great Hall right under the professor's noses? Here he was talking about Quidditch when he could be mouthing what he wanted from her, what _position_ he was thinking about right now. No, not _Quidditch_ positions either. Instead, he was talking to Blaise while his eyes darted every three seconds over to some wall on the other side of the Great Hall.

"Pansy-" Goyle began again.

"What?" she snapped, annoyed at him for making her lose contact with _Draco's_ legs as she had to pay attention his boulder brain.

"Nothing," he said again and resumed forking Shepheard's Pie in his sausage shaped lips.

She continued with her fruitless foot rubbing for another five minutes before Goyle interrupted again.

"What now?" she demanded as her foot dropped onto the ground yet _again._

"Nothing," he said again and Pansy rolled her eyes.

"Can you just tell me what you want to say instead of interrupting me every five minutes?" she yelled and the people around them started staring, except Draco. Of course, maybe he was still feeling the after effects of her lovely foot against him.

"I…"

"Just spit it out!"

"Can you scratch your own foot instead of rubbing it against me all the time?" he asked and the table erupted into snorts and hooting laughter.

Draco slipped away silently when he saw Ginny leave to change into another shirt.

"I wasn't even touching you!" Pansy exclaimed.

"You kept rubbing your foot against my leg," Goyle insisted. She peeked under the table and saw, in fact that he was right and all along it was Goyle's hopelessly porky legs and not Draco's _muscular_ legs that she was rubbing.

"Looks like someone's desperate for a shag," Theodore taunted as she left the table flushed with anger and embarrassment and realizing that Draco left. However, she could see no sign of him as she left the Great Hall.

"So Miss Weasley, where are you off to?" Draco drawled when he saw that there was nobody else in the corridor.

"To change my shirt of course, Mr. Malfoy. I accidentally dropped my whipped creamed strawberry right over _here_," she gestured to the stain on the front of her shirt on top of the swell of her breasts. Draco swallowed.

"We wouldn't want it to stain your pretty shirt, would we?" he said in a husky whisper as he approached her.

"No, that wouldn't be nice at all," she replied with a small smirk when she saw the effect she was having on him.

"I have a lot of experience with dealing with these stains. Perhaps I could _inspect_ the stain?" he eyed her chest, glancing at anywhere but the stain.

"It would be very nice of you to do so," she took his hand and led it over to the small splotch, "so what do you think, Mr. Malfoy? Would it stain?"

"Perhaps if I assist in cleaning it up right now…" he trailed off and took her mouth in his. His tongue traced her lips teasingly until she parted them. His hands continued inspecting the stain, _rubbing_ it, _kneading _it. A groan bubbled from her throat as they slowly deepened the kiss.

"Not here," he whispered and led her to a nearby broom closet. They stumbled in, never breaking contact, his lips only leaving hers as he quickly muttered a locking and silencing charm.

She let her hands roam his firm chest, her fingers tingling as she reached the scatter of hair, one hand brushed against his tight back muscles and slowly roamed up, lingering teasingly on his neck before running through his blonde hair. She felt his strong hands explore her curves, she grinded her hips against his and he groaned in response. The musty smell of the closet reminded him of the old house on the island when he first kissed her. If he closed his eyes and pictured hard enough, he could almost hear the sound of water splashing against the waterwheel.

He hungered for the simplicity of his life during the three weeks away from civilization. There, Ginny was his, all his. He didn't have to share her with the other thousand odd students at Hogwarts. He didn't have to put up with bastards like Nott or idiots like Crabbe. He missed the feeling of sun on his bare skin, the ticklish sensation of grass against his bare feet, and being able to reach out and hold Ginny whenever he wanted. Here, there wasn't the comfort of knowing that she was there every morning when he woke up.

_I'm snogging a beautiful girl and I'm thinking about grass against my feet…_

_Perhaps I should reconsider Dumbledore's advice on booking an appointment with a psychologist._

"You torture me, you know?" he said, his breath in gasps as he resumed hungrily tasting her lips, her tongue, her body. "I would try to concentrate on my dinner, then I see you with your strawberries and whipped cream." Not that he was trying particularly hard in the first place of course.

His hands began roaming underneath her shirt and she reached to stop him. She couldn't let him see the ugly ragged cotton bra she was wearing. Her mum always insisted on getting the boring and ugly lingerie from a mix of a lack of funds and simply insisting that the lace and satin varieties weren't 'proper.' He would be so repulsed if he saw what she was wearing underneath. He penetrated her with his iron-grey gaze through her soft brown eyes.

_You're not a rabbit, Malfoy. You can live without shagging the living daylights out of the girl! _

"Its alright, we can go slowly," he murmured, taking the sign of her hesitation as wanting to take things slowly. She responded by placing a light kiss on his lips.

"We should go now anyways, Filch might need to get some cleaning supplies after everyone's had dinner," she said straightening out her clothes and running her hand through her deep, rich, Titan-red hair. Her soft tendrils gave off a scent of flowers as she gently tousled it.

_Must not think of shagging…_

_Shepherd's pie…_

_Pumpkin Juice…_

_Chicken Breast…_

_Damn those hormones._

He pretended to pout and she ran a finger over his bottom lip.

"You're the one that wanted to keep this a secret," she reminded him.

"I know," he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist.

She leaned back and tilted her head so it rested against his shoulder.

"You seem a bit distracted, what happened?" he asked, stroking her hair with one hand.

_Yes, I can be caring and wonderfully sympathetic like Potter. Not that I would walk around looking like I have a bundle of seaweed on my head._

"Am I that horrid at snogging?" she asked with a mock insulted expression.

"You know you're not," he replied, his breath tickling her ear. His lips moved lightly against the outline of her cheek.

"Oh, maybe you could give me a confidence boost," she replied slyly as she turned so her lips met his instead of her face.

"Or maybe you could tell me what happened."

"I had a fight with Collin in Transfiguration a couple of days ago, that's all," she replied and placed a soft little hand over his rougher one.

_Damn that Mudblood imbecile._

"About what happened at the Astronomy Tower?" he asked. What he really meant of course was whether or not the fight was over him.

"Sort of, I'll try to talk to him later."

"Maybe you'll cheer up a bit if you know I have a surprise for you."

"What is it?" she asked curiously.

"I don't want to ruin it, just leave your window open for the next couple of nights," he replied mysteriously.

"Why?"

"I can't tell you yet. Now, Miss Weasley, why don't you leave first." He unlocked the door and deactivated the silencing charm. They left separately to avoid anyone seeing them leave a broom closet together and coming to the obvious conclusion.

"You're going to torture me with your mystery surprise, you know?"

"I am a Slytherin you know," he said as he gave her a light kiss on the lips before she left.


	17. Streak of Fire

-1Chapter 17

Ginny sat by the blazing fire of the Gryffindor Common Room alone in her orange dragon printed pyjamas with a blanket wrapped around her, trying to study for a test on Goblin rebellions for first class tomorrow morning. She sat with her thick History of Magic textbook in front of her and her stack of various doodles that were supposed to be 'notes' to her left. To her right was a box of cheese sandwich crackers. Her brow furrowed in dismay as she popped another one in her mouth that had come apart from being rattled around in her bag and the cheese bit was attached to the other piece. The fire crackled but a gust of wind rushed by and rustled the leaves outside the windows. She pulled her blanket closer to her body.

There was a harassed hooting sound outside one of the windows, a haughty looking owl looked as if it was having trouble staying at the same spot with the wind threatening to blow it off course every three seconds. She opened the window to let him in and he stuck out a regal foot with a letter attached. She didn't even have to look at the handwriting to see that it was from Draco. Who else would use a wax seal when sending casual notes?

"_Just wanted to say Goodnight to you before you went to sleep,_" was the message inside. The owl was carefully grooming himself and making sure the wind ruffled feathers weren't sticking out. Animals evidently took after their owners.

"_Goodnight to you too. I'm not sleeping yet though, I'm doing studying for my History of Magic test,_" she attached the letter to the waiting owl, wondering how he would deliver the letter to his owner, seeing that the Slytherin dormitories were under the lake.

She settled back into her armchair, trying to drill the facts of wizards squashing a bunch of goblin squabbling into her head. As she tried her best to concentrate on the page, the same owl approached the window again, scowling at her in the way only an owl would.

"_I'm not that tired yet, I'll keep you company_," his elegant handwriting wrote back.

"_And face the wrath of your owl? He's scowling at me as I write this._" She chuckled as she sent a sideward glance to the owl, who at the moment was giving her the evil eye before adding another line. _"He's giving me the evil eye._"

The next note was sent with a different owl, looking not a lot happier than the previous one and every bit as haughty as its predecessor.

"_The last one was being a prick, this one's a little nicer. Since you're being so concerned about my owls, is there anybody in your Common Room right now?"_

Why would it matter whether or not anybody was in the Common Room right now? Unless he was planning to come over…?

"_I'm sitting in the Common Room right now and besides me and your owl, there's nobody here. Are you planning to come in and invade Gryffindor Tower?"_

"_I'm planning the ransack the Tower and take some prisoners. A very specific prisoner in fact._" She could almost see the trademark smirk on his face as he was writing this and there was a sudden pop in the fireplace.

"So you've finally decided to launch your attack? Maybe you could give me a good excuse not to do write the test tomorrow by taking me as your prisoner," she turned around and grinned at Draco's head in the fireplace.

"Ah, so I've finally discovered the less noble side of the Gryffindors after all," he teased, "the willingness to sacrifice one's housemates to avoid studying for tests."

"Nobleness has nothing to do with not understanding anything in the History of Magic textbook or the bloody subject," she said as she scowled at her pile of 'notes'.

"I could help you," he offered with his half cocky Malfoy smile.

"You're planning to tutor me on Goblin rebellions for the next three hours while kneeling on the floor with your head in the fireplace?"

"I believe this is an invitation for me to come in." he raised his eyebrow suggestively.

"You make it seem like you're going to come in and shower with me or something." she giggled and popped another cheese sandwich cracker in her mouth.

"Like I always say, nobody can ever resist the Malfoy charm. Just the effect of my face in your fireplace gets you thinking about my stunningly naked body underneath a blast of hot water-" his 'seductive' narration was interrupted by Ginny collapsing into a fit of giggles.

"I think inhaling all the ash is getting to your head."

"Now if you excuse me, woman. My knees would like to tell you that they're grinding into the stone floor at the moment so you could at least-" he was once again cut off by her laughing, "stop that inhuman jerking and bubbly chuckling of yours." he growled.

"I thought men always described a woman's laughter as 'angelic and musical'?" she asked in a jokingly stunned tone.

"I'm sure it would be more beautiful to my ears if my knees aren't planning to commit suicide on me right now," he pouted.

"Aww you look like a sad little elephant right now," she commented in a sugary voice while watching his eyes grow wide.

"I do not look like an elephant!" he exclaimed, looking slightly panicked to Ginny's amusement.

"But elephants are cute," she argued innocently.

"They have hideously long noses and saggy grey skin."

"They have such cute bums though, all round and plump," she continued teasing.

"You'll like Goyle's bum then, it's the size of a watermelon," he noted acidly.

"Don't pout, you know I think your bum is the cutest," she winked with a sly smile, "though I could use a little reminder, maybe you should floo your bum over so I can have a good look."

"Wouldn't you rather have all of me come over?"

"Only if you can transfigure yourself into a teapot when we hear someone come down the stairs," she warned.

"I could try turning into a lamp," he suggested.

"Alright, but its not my fault if someone finds your cute little bum sticking out of a lamp and decides to transfigure it into a watermelon."

"Ha ha, very funny," he said sarcastically before popping his head back into the Slytherin Common room to floo his entire body over to the Gryffindor Common Room.

A few seconds later, Draco arrived brushing ashes off of his black Italian silk bathrobe that probably cost more than Ginny's entire Yule Ball outfit.

"Very nice pyjamas," he whispered as he kissed her on the lips.

"You have very nice pyjamas too," she replied, he was engulfed in the scent of her hair as she pulled away gently.

"So this is where centuries of Gryffindors plot to take down the slimy Slytherins, eh?" he looked around, contrasting the difference between the cooler colours of his common room and the warmer tones of Ginny's.

She settled back into her armchair and held out her History of Magic textbook to Draco. He looked questioningly at her gesture.

"You're supposed to help me study for this test, remember?" He felt a wave of disappointment as he was hoping that the History of Magic homework was just a disguised code for some other activities.

"Looks like someone's been having dirty thoughts," she teased and he pouted. "Come on, I'll share my blanket with you if you help me with this bloody test."

She snuggled into her little nest of blankets and made a little hole for him to join her. He obliged and snuggled next to her. He had to admit, being surrounded by the heat of her body and the softness of her worn blanket did feel very nice. She leaned against him, her delicious scent tantalizing him with bliss, his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Show me what you don't understand." he flipped through her worn textbook to the chapter that she needed.

"Pretty much everything. Don't tell me Binns's voice doesn't make you want to fall asleep."

"It does, I don't even go to his class half the time since he doesn't take attendance anyways," he admitted to her astonished look of horror.

"How come you're not failing his class? I heard that you're the one with the second highest marks in your year after Hermione," she asked. His face immediately turned dark at her innocent comment of Mudblood Granger defeating him in something.

"As long as I read the textbook, do the essays, and show up for exams, it doesn't matter whether or not I go to the class since almost everything he says is in the textbook anyways," he explained as rubbed his rough thumb on her soft thigh. She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, her brilliant hair fanned out against him.

"I feel like falling asleep when I open the book, I can't read it," she bit her lip and frowned at the thought of failing the subject this year.

"You don't always have to read from the textbook to learn, I have some historical fiction books I can lend you," he suggested and began massaging her shoulders, feeling the wonders of her bone structure and the warmth of her skin against his hands. "Don't forget, there are other ways of learning besides reading books."

"Go on, I have five hours before I have to do this," she turned around to face him. She noticed something just a little _different_ when her eyes darted sideways for a split second. She bit her lip to conceal her smile.

"What are you smiling at?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," she replied, her cinnamon eyes sparkling.

"You have that secretive look, I want to find out what the secret is," he demanded.

"I'll tell you later," she whispered, her warm breath tickling his ear, "after I finish studying."

"You love torturing me, don't you?" he growled.

"You started it with the whole surprise thing. I'm going to freeze to death opening my window every night."

"Patience, patience. Good things come to those who wait," he said in the voice that left Ginny itching with curiosity.

"I hate it when you do that," she pouted.

"I thought we were supposed to get on with studying," he reminded her gently as he glanced at the clock, "remember what you have to do at eight thirty."

"Fine, this way of teaching is supposed to be interesting and not make me want to fall asleep, right?"

"This method is one hundred percent effective, guaranteed." He winked, his hands began tracing her body through her orange dragon printed pyjamas.

"Oh, really?"

"In 1875," he started and traced the numbers with his roughened fingers on her soft thigh, "the Minister of Magic passed a decree banning all Goblins from holding large meetings."

"1875," she murmured, repeating the date after him.

"Gibbledook," he bent down and nibbled her ear gently, "led the first rebellion in 1876." His index finger drawing the numbers on her delicate cheek. "He rose to power by promising the Goblins all the rights they lost if they elected him as their leader."

"I like your way of preparing for tests." she let out a soft giggle as his breath tickled her cheek.

"We should definitely do it more often then," he replied before continuing on, "and in 1888..."

"Class will be over in five minutes, those of you who have created something resembling a potion may bottle up a sample and place it on my desk. Others," Snape glanced pointedly at Potter and Longbottom at this point, "will receive a zero for today."

Draco smirked as he saw the forlorn expression on Longbottom's porcine face. He yawned for the fiftieth time this morning from staying up until five thirty in the morning, studying with Ginny for her test. He still managed to brew a O-grade worthy potion despite being half asleep. He vanished his potion from his cauldron and picked up his books while the bell rang, he was about to leave the room when Snape called him back.

"I would like to speak to you before you leave, Draco," his voice echoed throughout the empty classroom. Snape got up towards his office, Draco followed.

Just why was he summoned to Snape's office in this way? It was no secret that Snape favoured him in every way and let him get away with just about anything. He was pretty sure that he didn't do anything in the past couple of weeks that would break enough school rules for him to get into serious trouble.

"I don't think we need to waste time with formalities. I just wanted you to know that Professor McGonagall would most likely want to speak to you some time today," Snape said in his usual 'I don't want to waste my energy talking to you' tone.

"Why?"

"Draco, there are security settings in Hogwarts that alerts all the Heads of Houses when someone floos into one of the common rooms."

Draco felt himself choke on his own spit when he realized that five professors (including Dumbledore) were alerted of his little rendezvous with Ginny last night. Could it be possible that they could spy on the Common Rooms with some charm? He shivered when he imagined Dumbledore smiling in his senile way as he watched various students snog intensely in the Common Rooms.

"That's very…interesting," Draco struggled to maintain his composure.

"Intelligence tells me that you flooed from the Slytherin Common Room to the Gryffindor Common Room at approximately two o'clock this morning," he replied with his already non-existent lips set in a thin line.

"I wanted to see if Gryffindor Common Room was any different from ours," Draco said lamely, "They do have very horrid furniture."

"It must have been a very interesting investigation if you found the need to stay for three and a half hours."

"It was-"

"Don't lie to me Draco. I am not obligated to tell you ahead of time that McGonagall would be looking to punish you."

Draco felt anger bubbling in his veins, Snape was talking to him like he was an ignorant little boy. However, he felt queasy inside at the prospects of McGonagall alerting his father that he had been sneaking over to the Gryffindor Common Room. Lucius Malfoy would no doubt be able to put together the pieces and figure out why exactly would a sixteen year old Slytherin boy be in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"I was meeting…someone," he struggled to keep his emotions in control. He tried not to meet Snape's eyes. He knew that Snape would be using Legilmency on him.

"Ah I see. Now how do you propose we should explain to McGonagall that you've been having a little rendezvous with one of her little Gryffindors?" Snape asked in his low and muttering tone.

Draco didn't say anything. He wasn't stupid like Potter. At times, it was better to keep your mouth shut to save your skin. Not that he didn't feel like blasting Snape with a nasty curse right now for treating him like a common Mudblood.

"When do you have Transfiguraton, Draco?"

"Today after lunch," he replied as coolly as he could. Though his voice still wavered slightly at the thought of what his father would do to him if McGonagall let the little mishap slip.

"Very well, I suppose that would give you enough time to think of a good alibi. You may go now," he dismissed Draco without giving him a note to excuse his tardiness for Charms.

Draco walked along the quiet stone Charms corridor. He could hear Flitwick's squeaky voice telling the class how to swish their wands properly to perform an Agumenti Charm. He knew that McGonagall would want to pounce on him (no, not in _that_ way) after Transfiguration. How come nobody ever told him that teachers knew when you flooed to other common rooms? Now he was in deep shit and he had nobody to blame but his own stupidity. Well, except for Ginny. After all, she was the one that suggested he floo over. On the other hand, they did have a nice snuggle…

_I can't believe how much I sound like a Hufflepuff right now._

They wouldn't be able to see each other for awhile. There's no telling how he would be punished for this and whether or not the news would spread around the school. He suddenly felt the need to see her, taste her, touch her, and hold her. But within that desire, there as a bubble of anger and hatred, knowing that his life would be so much simpler if he wasn't in love with her.

_Love?_

What exactly was love anyways? Chocolates for a date on Valentines? A dozen of red roses? Diamonds?

_Lust?_

Wants, desires, skin, sensuous. Images of his past flashed through his mind. A number of beautiful women, smiling at him wantonly, lying in beds of silk and satin. His clothes felt itchy, his shoes too small for his feet. What was he doing? He was the sole heir of the Malfoy fortune. Seeker of the Slytherin Quidditch team. Object of desire of more than three quarters of the Hogwarts female population. What was he doing with Ginny Weasley?

_Hatred?_

Could he go back to hating her? Would he hate her as sounds of his own screams filled his ears as his father used the Cruciatus Curse on him? Did he hate her right now as he walked away from Charms class with the prospect of facing McGonagall after lunch today?

More importantly, did he hate himself?

"Tell me, what exactly is a beautiful woman like yourself doing here alone?" Blaise Zabini's deep voice lingered sultrily in the air as he approached.

"That's got to be the worst pick-up line I've ever heard," Pansy replied. She was waiting for Draco in the Common Room so they could have lunch together. He wasn't in Charms today and Snape told him to stay behind in Potions Class. She had to find out what happened.

"Ouch, I think my heart just broke into two." He faked a pained expression, clutching his heart dramatically, falling on an armchair.

"That's in revenge for breaking mine. You know I've always wanted you, Blaise," she teased, patting his olive coloured cheek mock-affectionately.

"You're the one with the impossibly high standards. I've asked you out how many times now?" he replied back jokingly.

Pansy had not known Blaise since babyhood like she did with most of the other wealthy Slytherins. This was because of how Blaise's family became wealthy in the first place. His mother was with husband number six at the moment. The others have all mysteriously died within two years of the marriage. Not exactly the most socially acceptable way of gaining money, even in the Slytherin circles. Nevertheless, he was handsome, charming, and part Italian. A very attractive combination indeed.

"Not enough, evidently," she smiled slyly. Moving so that her lips almost touched his. She could actually taste the mashed potatoes he had for lunch today. She drew even closer quickly so that their lips touched for a millisecond.

"Some day, you're going to give me a proper kiss," he gazed at her almost intensely. She froze for a moment, unable to move. They were friends since first year and had always played this little game of flirting. They both knew that she only wanted Draco and he would never want anyone enough to settle down. Suddenly, in that look he gave her, Pansy found herself wondering: could there be more?

"Maybe." She gave him a flirty wink when she regained her composure, resisting the urge to look back to see if he was looking at her when she left the Common Room, she completely forgot about Draco.

"Hey," Harry greeted and slid down to the seat next to Ginny's at the Gryffindor table.

"Oh, hi." She gave him a small polite smile, but inside felt not annoyed but slightly…odd. This was the fourth or fifth time this week he talked to her at meals for no apparent reason. His attention felt almost stifling considering that he didn't even bother glancing at her for the past six years.

"So…how was your day?" he asked hesitantly. She wondered when he would get tired of that line and ask her how her potatoes were doing instead.

"Its fine so far," she replied and continued eating.

"Umm…yeah," he said awkwardly and grabbed a roll from the basket, tearing it to pieces instead of eating it.

"Yeah," she commented back, having no idea what she should say. They didn't know each other that well and weren't in the same year, therefore didn't have many topics they could actually talk about.

"Are you going to try out for Quidditch this year?" Harry asked.

_Ah, the topic that all males talk about. Obviously the time for desperate measures to break the silence._

"I think I might tryout for Chaser," she replied.

"Wow, I didn't know you played."

"Then how come you're asking if I'm going to tryout for the team if didn't think I played?" she asked and Harry blushed. Maybe she was being a bit harsh, but at the moment, she needed someone to unleash her anger on. Collin was still mad at her and for some reason, Draco seemed to be avoiding her. He never replied to the note she sent the other day and he never met her eyes when she looked at him in the Great Hall.

Beneath her anger, she also felt a sense of fear. Could Draco have finally decided that he didn't want to be with a Weasley anymore? Maybe he didn't change after all and found some new girl to snog.

"Oh…umm I've never seen you play before but I figured…" he let his sentence trail off and it was silent once again. She let her eyes dart around the Great Hall hoping for someone to rescue her from leaving this boring conversation without being rude.

"Ginny, can I have a look at your History of Magic notes right now?" Colin's squeaky voice sounded like music from the angels to her ears.

"Sure, I'll go get them right now. See you later, Harry." Ginny let out a big breath of relief as she and Colin left the Great Hall, leaving Harry shooting daggers at Colin's back.

"You should thank me for that," Colin said when they were alone in the corridor.

"Does that mean you're not mad at me anymore?" she asked, smiling brightly.

"Let's not go to the mushy stuff," he said, rolling his eyes, his lips barely concealing a smile.

"That's good because I hate it when we fight. I'm stuck being alone at meals and in class." She linked arms with him like they used to when they were eleven. It was good to have Colin back.

"You mean you hate being stuck with Harry at mealtimes."

"Colin, you know about Draco already. I don't like Harry in that way anymore." They began ascending the long flights of stairs to Gryffindor tower.

"Well you better tell him soon because he looks like he's serious about you."

"Maybe if you ask Demelza Robins out first, I know you like her." She nudged him teasingly.

"I'm tutoring her in Ancient Runes-"

"So you could date her?" she asked with her eyebrows raised suggestively.

"I think we've been through this conversation too many times." He groaned.

"So you _do _want to go out with her."

"No I don't, so don't go around telling everyone that!" He exclaimed in a panicky voice.

"Come on, you know I'm just joking." She gave him a playful poke in the arm as they entered the Common Room

"Its too hard to tell with you, you're evil."

"I'm a nice person!"

"Right…"

"The Dark Wizard Grindelwald was a ruthless dictator during his brief reign of the British Isles in 1943," Binns droned on in his monotonous voice while Hermione scribbled down notes, Seamus let out a loud snore in front of her.

"Ha! I win again!" Ron exclaimed, drawing one line connecting his X's on his tic tac toe parchment, beating Harry yet again.

"Can't you two at least _try_ to look like you're taking notes?" Hermione demanded, annoyed by being distracted by Ron again.

"Oi! Don't turn around, I need your notes for the finals," Ron replied cheekily and Hermione proceeded to swat him on the head with her History of Magic textbook.

"I'm not lending you my notes this year." She turned around and continued taking down Binns' lecture.

"Hear that, mate? Looks like we're going to fail History of Magic this year," Ron whispered loudly to Harry for Hermione to hear.

"Grindelwald situated his headquarters in what is now a remote area fifty miles south of Surrey," Binns paused for a moment before continuing. A small pool of drool was forming on Neville's desk.

"Will you two stop talking so I can listen?" Hermione turned around again.

"Maybe you should tell Seamus to stop snoring first," Ron retorted.

"Your snores are way louder than his," she pointed out.

"I don't even snore," he insisted and Hermione let out a rare snort.

"If anyone puts their hand to your bedroom door at night, they would be able to feel it vibrating every time you let out a snore."

"So how do you know that?"

Hermione's cheeks flushed red.

"That's not the point, the point is-" Hermione began before she suddenly stopped when she heard Binns say something that made her feel almost fearful.

"Grindelwald harnessed a powerful form of magic and created a cursed ward around his lair when he was surrounded by Ministry forces on June 13, 1945. Nobody knows what the ward was called or the exact effects of trespassing the island, but it is rumoured that the counter curse to the ward is to form an unbreakable bond between a male and a female…"

At this, Hermione froze. This must have been how they got through the mist of the island and found Ginny and Malfoy. They formed some sort of unbreakable bond, but what bond did they form? Did they sleep together? Shared blood?

Fallen in love?

Draco hovered on his broomstick outside Gryffindor Tower. Why the hell does it have so many bloody windows? For some unknown reason, it seems that more than half of the house likes to open their window on a freezing cold night. A bunch of weirdos.

He shivered, even in his fur lined pashima cloak, the autumn wind still felt icy cold as it whipped through his ungelled blonde hair. He felt strangely nervous for some reason. He hadn't made any effort to contact Ginny in the last few days or even to look at her. For some reason, after he emerged from his daily shower tonight, he just felt like he had to see her. Or perhaps it was the note she sent him to explain why she smiled so secretly that night. Apparently, she had gotten a good look at his boxers, which had a picture of a moving snake right at the…ahem area. It was a Christmas present from Pansy.

Strictly speaking, he didn't need to explain anything to her. Yes, she was his girlfriend, but how many has he had in the past? 'Girlfriend' was a loose term for the girl he found quite attractive at the moment and showered her with trinkets while enjoying numerous heated snogging/shagging sessions with her before he got tired of her. With Ginny it was different. He liked snogging her but he didn't want to go beyond that if she didn't want to. It wasn't like all the other girls where he would drop them if he didn't get what he wanted from them.

Was he becoming some sort of softie? Was Draco Malfoy settling down? What about the hummingbird theory that he always lived by? A hummingbird never drains all the nectar out of a flower; taste as many flowers as possible.

_Damnit, get on with finding Ginny's window, stop pacing around in midair like some sort of lost idiot!_

For most of is life, Draco Malfoy prided himself in being able to enjoy the company of females without sounding like a stuttering sociopath. He understood them, he knew what they wanted and how they felt. Relationships were easy, two people together and they both get what they want. Any time somebody isn't happy, they leave, no big deal. But this time, he was feeling this strange _attachment_. His first instinct, of course, is to run far away. The Slytherin Prince can't be tied down by a Weasley. On the other hand, the thought of being without Ginny filled him with a strange ache. In fact, he felt queasy right now; knowing that she wouldn't be happy with him avoiding her for the last couple of days.

_Oh gods, a Malfoy feeling queasy and trying to please someone. The sky is falling!_

Now the big question here is whether to go on with this little surprise that was floating around in his head for quite some time now. It would be nice to spend some time with her. Even though he was kind of running away from her for the past couple of days, he did miss being with her. But would doing this dig him deeper in this hole of attachment?

He took a deep breath and silently reprimanded himself for thinking like some sort of tottering imbecile. He was a Malfoy. Malfoys are decisive and confident, they know what they want and how to get it. There's never any wishy-washy thinking.

_I'm going to do it, right._

He gripped the handle of his broom a little tighter and flew by one of the open windows, taking a peek inside. All the maroon curtains were drawn around the bed. It was impossible to tell which dormitory this was. It would be rather unpleasant to land in Potter's dormitory instead of Ginny's. Potter would most definitely make a big deal of Draco being out of his Common Room past curfew and sneaking in some part of Gryffindor Tower _again_.

The dormitory that he was peeking into was quite messy. There were books and parchment strewn all over the floor as well as some clothes. It didn't look tidy enough to be a girl's dormitory.

He quickly darted to the next open window and found himself face to face with Ginny, in a faded nightgown that might have once been blue, her long flowing hair glistening in the moonlight.

"You seem to be having fun hovering in midair in the middle of the night," she remarked amusingly. Evidently, she had been looking at him outside her window for quite some time now.

"I had to make sure I found the right dorm," he replied in what he hoped was a steady voice. Ginny didn't look angry at the moment, but he knew from experience on the island, that she was a very good actor and could lash her anger out at the unsuspecting victim, just when they thought they were off the hook.

"So you could continue running away from me?" she snapped, her smile morphed into a frown at an alarming rate.

_Shit, shit shit! I knew fate wouldn't be this nice to me!_

"I wasn't running, I was just…busy," he scrambled around trying to find a good excuse. He couldn't believe it, just one look she gave him and he was all fluttery inside trying to find his way back to her good graces. There was no turning back, he was deep inside the ditch of attachment now.

"Too busy to make eye contact?"

"Look, I just needed time to sort things out, alright-"

"I'm not that type of girl that would follow you around like a puppy dog because you're rich and every girl wants you-"

"I never said you're that kind of girl-"

"One moment, you try to be with me as much as you can, then suddenly I'm not even worth a second of eye contact. What am I supposed to think?" she demanded angrily.

He remained silent, contemplating how to get himself out of a blazing row while his hands were frozen to his broomstick (the Nimbus 2001, not the _other _one) in the middle of the night outside Gryffindor tower.

"I was working on the surprise for tonight." The oldest trick in the book, flatter the females with thinking that you're spending a lot of time thinking about them. He saw her soften a little and for some reason, felt a tiny twinge of guilt for lying to her.

But this was a somewhat within reason lie. He couldn't just randomly _spill his heart out_. The very thought of blubbering on and on about his _feelings_ with someone other than a toad sickened him. Only weak and pathetic people would bother doing that. He was a man, he could handle his emotions.

"Lets not waste time arguing, alright? Like you said, we haven't even looked at each other in ages. Why don't we save the row for later," Draco suggested, throwing in a bright smile as a peace offering. She hesitated for a moment before relenting.

"I'll go get my broom."

"You could ride on the back of mine."

"You should probably know by now that I like to control the broom, not tag along for a ride in the back," she replied and reached for the broom underneath her bed.

Draco found himself smiling at her comment. Maybe this was the little something in Ginny that made her different from all the girls in the past, that little streak of fire.

She reappeared, about ninety seconds later with her hair in a loose ponytail, her winter cloak thrown over her body. She mounted her broom and shot out of her window, streaking past Draco three times before hovering in the air next to him. Her bright cinnamon eyes were sparkling, her cheeks pink with cold, and the contour of her slender body showed even through her winter cloak. Perfection, she showed perfection.

"Well?" she asked, snapping him out of his daydream.

"Follow me," he said as they flew out of the range of Gryffindor Tower and darted in and out of the various buildings of Hogwarts. He used various Quidditch moves that he learned as a Seeker and found that Ginny kept up very well with him. He was careful not to fly too fast though, since her broom probably couldn't keep up with his.

They finally landed next to the lake on the grassy banks of the lake, their breath coming out in puffs of mist from the cold night air.

"You can't scare me with Quidditch manoeuvres," she said as she dismounted.

"I would have been surprised if you were," he replied and laid down on the cold, wet grass. He winced as he felt the cold ground came in contact with his Italian-crafted trousers.

"So this is the surprise?" she asked as she laid down next to him.

"Part of it, just wait," he replied mysteriously and shifted so he was right next to her.

"Wait for what?"

"Be patient," he scolded gently and she turned to pout at him.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, you have to, I'll ruin the surprise if I tell you." Another gust of wind blew past, Ginny snuggled next to him to keep warm. Draco found that her body fit right into his and it was comforting to know that even though he hadn't felt her next to him for a while, they still fit together, like two pieces of a puzzle.

"Do you ever feel like you're missing out on all the other girls out there because you're with me?" she asked suddenly. It was hard to tell what would be the appropriate response to her question. Draco was beginning to understand why it seemed to scary for men to deal with their girlfriends and wives; when you actually care about someone, there's something deep inside of you that wants to make them happy.

"Well…no," he finally replied. This was partly a lie, considering that the question was dancing around his mind for days and for some crazy reason, he contemplated snogging the blonde haired Violet from Ravenclaw that seemed to have ogled him for ages when she passed him in the corridors. He was curious: how would it feel to have another girl's lips pressed against his? Would the kissing and/or fondling feel better or worse now that he was with Ginny?

"Really?"

"Yeah," he replied, hoping he sounded very convincing.

"Look, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I don't expect us to be together every day because we need a life outside of our relationship. I'm just really stressed out so I took it out on you." Of course, she didn't mention that she was stressed out because she had to figure out either how to tell Harry she didn't want to meet with him at Hogsmeade or tell Draco that she would be meeting Harry there.

Draco felt a twinge of guilt that could no longer be hidden when he heard her say this. Lashing out at him wasn't a big deal considering that he secretly contemplated cheating on her.

"Tell me," he said, taking off his cloak and putting it over both of their bodies like a blanket when he felt Ginny shiver again.

"I don't know, but its just complicated. There's all these things going on and then there's the whole thing with us and we can't tell anyone…" she trailed off and only the sounds of their breathing filled the air for the next five minutes.

"Everything's going to come out alright, it always does," he murmured, stroking her silky red tresses.

"What if it doesn't?"

"Then I'll just have to make it right for you." She smiled, despite the impossibility of his promise, feeling the anger and irritated emotions she felt towards him drift away. "I think my surprise for you is ready now, look up."

Ginny turned her head away from him and towards the sky. It was a velvet backdrop for the stage to a million stars, all glistening and blinking brilliantly. It was a really beautiful sight but she saw these stars whenever she had Astronomy Class, what makes this a special surprise?

"I still don't know what your full name is. Your parents couldn't have named you Ginny," he said instead of revealing to her what the surprise was supposed to be.

"Its…weird. I like being Ginny, there's nothing wrong with it," she insisted. She wasn't exactly comfortable with Draco knowing that her full name was _Ginevra._ Why didn't her parents just name her Sally or Jane. Something that didn't sound like a pet cat belonging to a batty old lady.

"Come on, I want to know. Its part of the surprise," he persisted. She replied after much hesitation.

"You have to promise not to laugh."

"I promise," he said as he placed his hand on the left of his chest while she playfully pushed him.

"I'm serious."

"I am too, now just tell me."

"Its _Ginevra_," she winced as she said it, waiting for him to burst out laughing.

"It's a pretty name, what's wrong with it?"

"Its horrible," she insisted.

"I think its just as pretty as the girl that has it." She blushed.

"You still haven't told me what the surprise is about." She brought the topic back to why there were lying on the cold wet grass in the first place.

"You see over there," he pointed to a northern part of the sky, "that's the constellation Draco."

"Yes, I know."

"It always feels kind of good to look out the window and see it. Its almost like there's something in the sky marking my place in this world…"

He still wasn't at the surprise part yet. He took her hand in his and pointed at the brightest star in the night sky, moving and creating a picture by connecting various stars along the way.

"What is it?" she asked curiously. It looked like some sort of bird from what she could make out.

"It's a phoenix, the constellation Ginevra," he announced.

She looked at the sky again and found that the phoenix he had made by connecting the stars was still there. It didn't matter that her constellation will never be put on the star charts of an Astronomy Test. It was a gift that didn't cost any money, yet it was worth more than any trinket that Draco could shower on her. She felt like she was bathed in a strange sort of warmth, a glow as she gazed contently at the picture created by the stars in the sky. Maybe the strange sort of warmth was…love.

Her feeling of content, however was interrupted when he began his next sentence.

"About the Hogsmeade trip this week…"


	18. Acid

-1Chapter 18

"About the Hogsmeade trip this week…"

Ginny felt her heart pound with the force of hail falling on a brittle windowpane. She was absolutely certain that any minute now, her skull would give into the pressure of her blood and explode. On the other hand, if that did happen, she wouldn't have to think about the sticky situation she got herself into. Maybe that wouldn't be so horrible after all.

"Uh huh," she mumbled in response. Maybe she should pretend to fall asleep so he wouldn't suggest a plan for the Hogsmeade Trip.

"Did you know that all the Heads of Houses are informed when someone floos into a Common Room?" he asked. If this was true, did it mean that all the professors knew about the two of them meeting last night? But what did this have to do with the Hogsmeade Trip?

"So you mean that McGonagall and Snape…" she trailed off, bracing for the worse.

"Snape called me into his office today after Potions and McGonagall called me into her office in Transfiguration," he replied grimly. The answer was clear.

"What happened?"

Could it be that Draco ratted her out to McGonagall to Snape so he wouldn't be punished as severely? There was a part of her that was still glowing from Draco's thoughtful dedication of a phoenix to her as her constellation, but there was the other doubtful part of herself. The part that knew it was in the Slytherin nature to betray anyone in any circumstance if it meant saving their own skin.

"I have detention on Saturday with McGonagall for the entire day. We won't be able to spend the day alone at Hogwarts or Hogsmeade," he said in a neutral tone that made it hard for Ginny to tell how he felt about this. She felt a knot twisted in her stomach and a heavy sense of guilt. It was her idea that he should floo his entire body over so they could…study properly. "We should probably get back now and get some sleep before class tomorrow."

"I'm sorry," she apologized and grasped his toned arm with her slender hand as he turned to retrieve their broomsticks.

"Its alright," he turned and gave her a small smile, "really, it is." But she could tell that it wasn't alright with Draco. Despite his smile and his tone, the slate grey of his eyes, reflecting the moonlight showed that he was anything but content.

"Its not alright. It was partially my fault and you're the one getting in trouble for it."

"I wasn't sacrificing myself to not tell on you or anything, you know I wouldn't do anything stup-_noble _like that." He tucked a strand of hair that flew into her face as a stream of cool air breezed by.

"I can tell that you're angry." She reached for his hand and held it firmly in her hand. His hand was rigid and didn't relax completely to her touch.

"I'm not _angry_ right now, not with you anyways. I mean, I guess I am a little but I didn't have to floo over just because you told me to…"

Oh Merlin, did _Draco Malfoy_ just decide to blame himself instead of somebody else?

The next thing you know, he'll start kissing orphaned babies and helping old witches cross the street.

Oh Gods.

"I'm really, really sorry."

"I know," he replied softly and kissed her gently on the lips. "Don't worry about it, alright? Snape won't leave me to suffer with McGonagall. He can't stand the idea of a Slytherin suffering under a Gryffindor," he assured her and held her hand gently but firmly. "Let me give you a ride on a Nimbus 2001."

This time, she didn't object and as they shot across the night sky with her arms around his waist and her head against his back, she could see the phoenix shaped constellation of Ginerva looking directly at the dragon shaped constellation of Draco.

"No wait, wait, I know its not the Gurlupta Revolution its…its…argh I give up! Stop smirking at me!" Ron demanded as Hermione gave him the answer without even looking at the textbook in her lap. The flickering flames in the fire danced in Hermione's caramel brown eyes, but he wasn't supposed to notice that.

"The Lupgurpa Revolution, Ron, and I am not smirking," she replied and moved on to the next question.

She looked down at her textbook and a lock of hair fell into her face again. It was just the particularly curly piece of hair on her right that did that. He had a very strong urge to push it back for her and feel the texture of her hair on his fingertips. He definitely wasn't supposed to be feeling this way.

"This is a waste of time, I'm not going to cram all these bloody revolutions into my head anyways. Let's play chess," he suggested before Hermione could ask the next question.

"Come on, focus," she chided gently.

"I already studied for half an hour, I need a break! Besides, how come you're not making Harry study?" he retorted.

"Harry has a lot to sort out right now, he needs his space. You on the other hand…" she trailed off and gave him a look that clearly suggested there was something he was doing something wrong.

"What does he need to sort out? We're not having our first Quidditch game until after Halloween and he's not snogging Cho Chang anymore." Ron rolled his eyes while Hermione continued giving him that _look_.

"There isn't any use of talking about _feelings_ and _emotions_ with you, is there? You're about as sensitive as a mushroom," she stated acidly.

"Why are you lashing out at me all of a sudden? What did I do? I thought we were talking about Harry."

"We _are_ talking about Harry."

"You just called me a mushroom! What does that have to do with Harry?"

"I can't believe you! How could you sleep in the same dormitory as Harry and not notice anything? Its so obvious!" she exclaimed.

"What's obvious? He's eating, he's sleeping, and he's flying."

"Argh, do you ever think of anything else other than Quidditch? I'm not even going to bother talking to you about this, you're just going to throw a tantrum and ruin everything."

"I'm a mature being, I can handle all this _emotional_ touchy feely talk," he insisted and Hermione snorted.

"So Mr. Mature, if you're so sensitive and all, how can you tell when a girl _likes_ a boy and a boy _likes_ a girl back?"

"Easy! They both make kissy faces at each other," he declared triumphantly while she shook her head, exasperatedly.

"You're so _blind_! Have you even tried noticing anything about Harry? Have you tried noticing anything about _me_?" Her voice was getting louder now.

"Yes I have! Harry's all normal and you're just yelling at me for no reason!" he yelled back.

"I don't know why I even bother talking to you when its clear that you don't notice _anything_ about me!"

"So am I supposed to know who you two want to snog or something?" he demanded.

"Yes! You should!" she screamed back loudly, "Harry's about to get his heart broken!"

"Harry doesn't even talk to girls! Except for you and Ginny…" he trailed off, eyes widening in realization. "But what's wrong with that?"

"He's…she's…" Hermione struggled to explain to Ron without telling him that his sister was dating Malfoy. "They just can't be together."

"Why not?"

"Because…they just…I don't know how to explain-"

"You're in love with Harry!" Ron cut her off, coming to a sudden realization.

"I love Harry but I'm not _in _love with him!" she exclaimed, rolling her eyes at his obliviousness.

"You want Harry so you're stopping my sister from getting him? I can't believe you," he snarled, fists clenched, face reddening. "And everyone wants the great Harry Potter as usual." He threw the History of Magic textbook on the floor and stomped away angrily.

"I don't feel that way about Harry! And even if I did, it would be obvious why! He's not an idiot like you!" she yelled towards his retreating back, but he didn't reply and kept walking.

Hermione stormed off in the opposite direction out of the Gryffindor Common Room, her vision blurred by tears of frustration.

On Saturday morning, Draco's owl delivered a stack of historical novels to Ginny's dormitory, complete with a green satin ribbon and a note that smelled faintly of his aftershave.

_Maybe these will help in the future, they're yours to keep._

_D.M._

It was the Hogsmeade trip and the date with Harry. She didn't like to think of it as a date. Strictly they were just two friends meeting for a friendly drink at the Three Broomsticks and they'll be sitting with Ron and Hermione so they wouldn't be alone. Harry never said it was going to be a romantic meeting.

Not that she still didn't feel bad about not telling Draco, especially when he was thoughtful enough to remember to send her the historical novels he promised. She had been avoiding Harry for the last couple of days but Harry somehow always managed to bump into her in the corridors or in the courtyard.

She sighed and wrapped a scarf around her neck and out on a thick winter cloak. It would probably be better to leave her hair down and keep warm. On second thought, she took the ribbon that Draco tied the books with and used it to tie her hair up. The ribbon smelled like him and she felt better about meeting Harry, knowing that she was carrying a piece of Draco with her.

Then again it didn't matter much seeing that Draco would probably not choose to forgive her if he found out about her date with Harry simply because she was wearing a ribbon that smelled like him.

_Life is too damn complicated. _

"Come on Draco, wake up! We're going to Hogsmeade today!" a loud nagging voice rang from Draco's right. He groaned and raised his arm to swat whoever the voice was coming from. If his alarm clock wasn't waking him up, it probably meant there were no classes. Anyone who wakes up Draco Malfoy on a weekend deserves to be _Avada Kedevra-ed._

"I don't want to have to drag you out of your bed!" the voice continued shouting, "unless you want me to," the person, now identified as a female, added in a sickeningly sugary voice.

"Piss off," Draco mumbled groggily. Sleep was a damn important part of life, right up with Quidditch and sex. He could almost imagine his mother's look of horror if she ever heard her son talk about sex in such a blunt manner. Mothers tended to have some odd notion that their babies will stay babies forever and never engage in the act of making babies themselves. Not that Draco was looking to be a father or anything.

"Aww come on, I'm sure _Drakie Poo_ wants to come out and play," the annoying voice continued coaxing and Draco felt a pair of strange hands straying within the southern regions of his body. He yelped and shot straight out from his bed sheets. Sure, every male liked the fantasy of a sultry stranger hopping into his bed, but cold hands… early in the morning, you get the picture.

"Gods Pansy! What are you doing here?!" Draco demanded as he sat up with his blanket pulled protectively in front of him while glaring at her with annoyance written all over his face.

"I just told you! I don't want to wait around for your to wake up when we could be at Hogsmeade!" she exclaimed and Draco's head snapped violently to the left as he read the time on his alarm clock.

Nine twenty-two am. He was supposed to be at McGonagall's office at nine o'clock for detention.

_Oh crap_.

Not only was he late for detention, he was late for detention with the Head of Gryffindor that was a stickler for punctuality and had a wand stuck up her arse.

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" he demanded as he leapt from his bed to the washroom as fast as a nudist streaking through a field in the Quidditch World Cup final.

"See, I knew that you wouldn't want to miss the Hogsmeade Trip, I tried so hard waking you up but you sleep like a…" Pansy's voice was being drowned by the sounds of hot water beating down on his skin as he quickly scrubbed his scalp and his body. The only thing he could think of was the deep trouble he would be when he arrived at McGonagall's office.

Hell, something like that could make a man drown out thoughts about his hair, let alone an annoying bratty voice outside his bathroom door.

He hopped out of the shower, dripping wet and quickly grabbed his tube of toothpaste and in his hurry to squeeze its contents on his special perfectly straight edged toothbrush, managed to squirt a blob of peppermint paste right on his thigh.

"Argh! Bloody toothpaste!" he let out a strangled scream of frustration and desperately tried to rub the paste off with his damp towel with one hand while scrubbing his molars using his special toothbrush with the other.

"What's that, Draco? Do you want me to come in and help you with _anything_?" Pansy's voice shrilly drifted through the bathroom door, clearly she had interpreted his frustrated yell to be a yell of something else.

"Shut up!" he yelled back loudly and shoved his legs into his trousers and hastily stuffed his arms into a slightly wrinkled shirt. He ran a hand through his finely trimmed damp platinum-blonde hair. He looked like a German Shepherd dog that fell into a bucket of blonde dye, but he was already late and a lot of girls found the 'scruffy' look dead sexy anyways.

As soon as he opened the door, he was greeted by Pansy's evidently enthusiastic feelings about the trip to Hogsmeade.

"Draco! You look so…_handsome_ today," she purred and grasped is toned arm with her chubby fingers, "lets go-"

Before Pansy could even finish her sentence, Draco sped out the door with the speed of a Basilisk slithering away from a rooster; with Pansy's voice lingering uncomfortably in his mind. Perhaps the detention was a hidden gift from fate after all.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry wondered out loud as he looked around the Entrance Hall for signs of bushy hair.

"Look, there's Ginny, let's all go together," Ron suggested flatly, trying to keep himself from pummelling Harry. One thought was burned into his mind: get Harry and Ginny together and prevent Hermione from executing whatever plan she might have come up with. A knot of anger burned in his chest as her voice echoed in his mind.

"What about Hermione?" Harry asked as Ron tried to convince Ginny to come along. Harry crossed his fingers in his pocket without even thinking, hopefully she would say yes.

"You desperate to shag her or something?" Ron turned around and snapped, unable to control his anger any longer. Harry was taken back at his sudden fury and the comment he made. Hermione was a great person but Harry could never imagine her as anything more than a sister.

"Why would I want to do that? We're friends," he replied, surprised by Ron's look of fury.

"We all know how _great_ you are, you don't have to go prove it by chatting up every girl you see!" Ron said a sneer, his tone sounding horrifically similar to Malfoy's.

"I don't go around chatting up girls, what are you talking about?" Harry confusedly asked.

"You want to know what I'm talking about, Potter?" Ron suddenly gave Harry a rough shove and Harry fell to the floor in surprise. "I'm talking about you _seducing_ Hermione!"

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you today?" Ginny bent down to help Harry up while yelling at her brother. Ron appeared to have gotten the stupid idea that there was something between Harry and Hermione.

"What's wrong with me? You should be asking Precious Potter!" Ron snarled at both of them and let out a strangled scream before giving Harry the finger and walking away.

He couldn't control it. He knew that Harry never showed an interest in asking Hermione out or anything and from what he could see, it was probably a one-sided attraction on Hermione's part. Still, he couldn't help but blame Harry simply for being Harry. But why was he so angry in the first place? Hermione was just the annoying girl that always pestered him to do his homework. He shouldn't care about who she was interested in.

But he did.

No matter how much he tried to stop himself, he did. He felt anger towards her when he knew that she wanted Harry. The angry emotions he felt were just as strong as the feeling of his heart pounding when he sensed the flowery scent of Hermione's hair. No matter how hard he tried to forget her, he could never succeed. She had a place in his heart already and nothing could change that.

As Ron walked away with swirled emotions in his mind, Ginny was left with a predicament on her hands. She couldn't exactly leave Harry all alone after her prat of a brother decided to pick a fight with his best friend. His feelings were probably hurt and it would be cruel to leave him like this. On the other hand, she didn't want to spend the entire day with him. She didn't want to give him the idea that she returned the feelings that he felt for her. But then he probably already got the wrong impression from her accepting his invitation for a drink.

"Are you alright?" she asked and looked for injuries on his body while he blushed fiercely as her hand was still on his arm.

"I'm alright but what's wrong with Ron today? Is he having his time of the month or something? I didn't do anything to him and he just blows up at me all of a sudden," Harry said as he stared at the spot where Ron was with a mixture of hurt, confusion, and anger.

"He's always in the 'time of the month' mood with anything that has to do with Hermione," Ginny replied in agreement.

"He really thinks there's something going on between me and Hermione?" he asked incredulously. "She's like a sister to me."

"We all know Hermione likes Ron but Ron doesn't know it. He's just looking for someone to blame for some row they probably had," Ginny explained and patted him on the arm, he felt shivery jolt travel through his spine at her touch.

"I should probably go explain to Ron, but then he might give me a black eye or something," he added with second thought.

"Wait until he cools down and realizes what a prat he's been and then calmly explain to him that not only was he being a prat, he was also being an idiot."

They both laughed and without noticing it, were already walking away from the Hogwarts grounds and onto the path towards Hogsmeade. An awkward silence fell between them as the laughter died off.

"Do you need to buy anything or is there a place that you want to go to?" he asked politely. It seemed that Harry expected to spend the whole day with her now that his best friends were off brooding about each other.

It was going to be a long day.

"Did you come and try to ravish me in my bed while I was asleep?" An Italian-accented male voice filled the room.

Blaise's handsome profile filled the doorway as Pansy stared at spot where Draco flung her arm away and ran quickly out the door. She felt a sharp stab of anger and hurt. She always seemed to want him more than he wanted her. He was important to her while she was just some random groupie that wasn't worth a second glance to her. Tears began forming in her eyes and one rolled down her cheeks.

"I'll be going," she said, choking back a sob before stumbling blindly to the door, she was stopped by Blaise's warm body.

"What happened? What's wrong?" he asked softly in a concerned voice and brushed her tears away lightly with his thumb.

"Nothing, I'll be fine," she replied, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible. This was so embarrassing, being obviously rejected by Draco and then crying about it in front of Draco's friend.

"Come on, tell me," he soothed and led her to a bed and sitting her down. He let her lean her head against his shoulder and sob loudly.

"Nothing, its just…I-I…Draco." Her words were broken by her sobs. "I just feel like an idiot."

"I saw Draco running to McGonagall's office along the way here. He probably wasn't running there voluntarily," he explained as if able to read her mind and recall what happened moments before. "McGonagall would never meet with a student past nine o'clock if it was detention so Draco was probably late and in for a tough day."

"He had detention?" she asked, sniffing and feeling her heart leap. Draco wasn't pushing her aside to reject her; he was late for detention with McGonagall.

"From the looks of it, probably." He shrugged. "Come on, let's go to Hogsmeade and forget about Draco." He pulled her out of bed and led her to the door. She felt a slight fluttery feeling from her chest as she felt the warmth of her hand in his.

As they chattered on all the way to Hogsmeade, she realized and felt that there could really be more in Blaise. He was gentle, sweet, and really a nice guy with the touch of Slytherin in him. She didn't know why she was even bothering with Draco, he clearly didn't give a damn about her and brushed her off the way a cow would swat a fly with its tail every time he saw her. But Draco was the first guy she ever had feelings for. From the very first time she remembered seeing him as a little girl…his blonde hair, the air of confidence he had, and those beautiful grey eyes…she knew she wanted him.

"Let's go have a drink." He led her inside the Three Broomsticks, which was almost completely filled with Hogwarts students.

"Let's sit there." She pointed at an empty table by the window and they approached but Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley got there first.

"Pothead and little Weasel, how appropriate," Blaise drawled as he approached, clearly unhappy with having his table taken by two Gryffindors.

"Get lost, Zabini," Harry replied with the same amount of malice. The hate between Harry and Blaise wasn't nearly as intense as it was with Draco, but they still disliked each other on the basis of Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry.

"You should get lost, this is my table," Blaise glared viciously at the pair seated, trying to intimidate them as much as possible.

"We sat down first and this table isn't reserved so its our table now," Ginny replied, her fist clenched tightly around her menu.

"Oh Blaise, you shouldn't interrupt little Weasel and Pothead. After all, she probably needs the money, you know." Pansy smirked at the pair and saw Harry's jaw stiffen immediately at her words.

"You're right, Potter would want to get his money's worth out of his whore-"

Harry's fist came in contact with Blaise's jaw before he got to finish his sentence. Blaise fell back and stood up in a split second and punched him back before taking his wand out. Ginny followed and took hers out as well, the Weasley fire burning clearly in her eyes. They were interrupted by Madam Rosmerta before they had a chance to shout any spells at each other.

"Put your wands away! I won't have any duelling in my place!" Madam Rosmerta's voice cut through the concentrated stare of hatred.

"Potter, Zabini, Weasley, what is going on?" Professor Sinstra's voice rang out from the staircases, she seemed to have just left the private rooms upstairs.

"They were about to duel Aurora, and from the looks of it, they punched each other a few times before even taking their wands out," Madam Rosmerta replied.

"I'm afraid, you four, yes, you too Miss Parkinson, are coming back to Hogwarts with me. This is appallingly disappointing behaviour in Hogwarts students, duelling in Muggle and Wizard style in Hogsmeade," she lectured and motioned for them to follow her, not without some resemblance to McGonagall.

The two pairs continued to shoot poisoned arrows through their eyes at each other as they followed Sinstra back to Hogwarts, Harry looking especially angry and disappointed.

"What happened to you? Got run over by a chipmunk?" Draco asked when he saw Blaise's swollen cheek at dinnertime.

"I saw Potter and the Weasley whore at the Three Broomsticks and he punched me for telling the little Weasel what she deserved to be called," he replied and chewed his roll viciously.

Draco's curiosity and anger leapt at the mention of Ginny. His fingers automatically twitched to grab his wand at the way Ginny was being degraded, but he was also interested in Ginny being seen with Potter. Did they bump into each other casually? Was it some planned date? He felt a watermelon sized blob of jealousy at the idea of Potter being able to spend the whole day with Ginny while he was stuck with dusting the Transfiguration stock.

"They were on a date?" he asked as casually as possible.

"Looked like it, but fitting, eh? Blood traitor slag and dirty half-blood…" Blaise's words lost meaning as Draco registered Blaise's confirmation in his mind. Ginny was on a date with Potter.

On the other hand, Blaise could have assumed that they were on a date when really they met outside the bar by chance. Still, the image of Potter making Ginny laugh as he paid for her Butterbeers and pulled her chair for her and kissed her…

He suddenly lost his appetite.

He left the table as Blaise began retelling the story to Theodore Nott, his heart stopped for a full second at the sight before him at the far end of the hall.

He recognized the flaming red hair to be Ginny and the messy black hair to be Potter. Her back was to him and Potter's hands were on her hips, their heads moving in what looked like an intense snogging session.

He took the blame for her, spending the entire day dusting old trinkets and earning a lecture from both Snape and McGonagall. He could have been shagging a number of beautiful girls in the time he was willing to go slowly with her. He saved her on the island when she was attacked by bees. It looked like she was playing him all along. This was a ploy between her and Potter. His fingernails grinded so hard into his palm that blood started trickling out of his fist, but he couldn't feel it. He wanted revenge, bad, right now.

Nobody, absolutely nobody screws Draco Malfoy over without paying the price.


	19. A Dark Hallows Eve

-1Chapter 19

"We should probably head to dinner now," Harry suggested as they left McGonagall's office.

The Hogsmeade Trip was comparable to wearing socks filled with itching powder when one was dining in a high class restaurant filled with influential people and for some reason was wearing shoes with complicated buckles and straps that made it impossible to take off in under two hours to relive the horrible itching.

Basically, it was filled with long periods of silence where neither knew what to say and not one, but two brawls occurred at some point and it ended with a lecture from the Head of Gryffindor House, twenty points taken off, and a ban from visiting Hogsmeade for the next two months.

Using the word 'horrible' to describe the day would be an understatement.

"Okay," she answered stiffly. What happened today wasn't Harry's fault but there was still a part of her that wanted to throw her shoe at someone, preferably Harry, to release some of the anger that was sitting in her like a ball of fire.

They were about to enter the corridor leading the to the entrance of the Great Hall when Harry suddenly turned around.

"I'm really sorry about what happened today."

He stopped so suddenly that Ginny crashed right into him, her brilliant hair flying into Harry's face. He reached out to steady her and she felt a prickle of pain on her scalp; several strands of hair had gotten caught in the hinge of Harry's glasses.

"Oops, I got it." She reached out to gently remove her hair from his glasses, but accidentally pulling his glasses half off in the process. He tilted his head to the side to give her a better angle at the hinge of his glasses, the hand on her back where he originally placed to steady her never left her body. She moved her head in the other direction simply because staring face to face with Harry felt too weird.

As if a light switch has just been turned on in a previously pitch black room, he suddenly noticed how close they were. He noticed how his hand felt against the delicate curve of her lower back, how he could see the flames from a nearby torch dancing in the caramel irises of her eyes. Her lips, full and luscious darted seductively in and out of his vision.

He knew he wanted to kiss her, he could feel his palms growing sticky and his face growing warm. Ginny was about to remove the last piece of her hair from his glasses when he suddenly leaned forward and kissed her. Nausea and panic registered in her mind when she felt him thrust his tongue between her lips. Thawed from her shock induced stillness, she frantically tried to free herself from his arms and his lips. Mistaking this for a sign that she wanted to go further, he slid one hand further down and Ginny finally pushed him away forcefully.

Breathing never felt so good, but she could still feel the burning touch of Harry's body on her own. It was almost like having the imprint of an octopus's suction cups on her skin after managing to miraculously escape. Harry blushed a deep crimson red, his body seemed unable to register the fact that she just pushed him away and he stood frozen in embarrassment, his arm still seemed to be outstretched.

"I'm…I'm sorry, I'm sorry Ginny I didn't mean it I, I," Harry babbled on his face getting redder as he went on.

Ginny swallowed hard, her mouth seemed to taste like Harry's lips.

She turned around and left, not wanting to let this memory etch any deeper in her mind than it already was.

Draco let out a hiss of pain when he finally noticed that his hand was bleeding from his fingernails grinding into his palm in a tight fist. He unconsciously felt the tender flesh with his other hand, the sharp stinging feeling was the only thing that numbed the pain within that cut deeper than the wound on his hand.

Blaise was right, she is a whore. He couldn't bring himself to call her by _Weaslette_ or some other derogatory term, but he couldn't bring himself to call her Ginny either. Any name, any memory of her; past or present, love or hate, fuelled the scorching flames within him that threatened to burn through his very soul. Before he knew it, he was standing at the door of the Hogwarts' kitchen, he was about to do something unthinkable, something dramatically devastating and something that he could never ever let anyone know about.

He tickled the pear in the portrait and reached for the handle, pulling the door open and discreetly heading in.

Five minutes later, he came out with a large box of assorted chocolates. He could smell the warm aroma of cocoa and vanilla wafting to his nostrils. It reminded him of Ginny. The colour of her eyes, the smell of her body as she jumped into his arms, the taste of her lips…

Before he could stop himself, a tear rolled down his cheek. He wiped it away ferociously. She was nothing but a worthless bitch. He had his fun with her, he was tired of her. She was a worthless slag. He wondered how much Potter paid her to spread her legs. He let out a bitter laugh and whispered the password to the stone wall, walking straight into his dormitory and slamming the door with all his might. Sinking down onto his bed, he reached into the box and pulled out a chocolate.

It was a hazelnut centred truffle. He could feel himself chewing and swallowing, but he couldn't taste the sweetness of the chocolate, only the bitterness of the cocoa within. He remembered once that Ginny told him about the time she climbed up a tree when she was little to pick the nuts. She fell down and broke her collarbone, the scar was still there. It was her ticklish spot, she always giggled when he kissed her there…

_She's like a common prostitute, you don't give a hippogriff's arse about her._

He reached in again, dark chocolate this time. They were Ginny's favourites because she liked to taste the sweet amongst the bitterness. She said it made the chocolate sweeter. He always gave her the dark chocolates and she would give him the white chocolate truffles because she knew he liked them. He chewed more vigorously. He was eating her favourite chocolate without her.

_Take that!_

He reached in again, mint chocolate this time. He absolutely hated mint chocolate, it was the most disgusting thing in the world; mixing creamy warm chocolate with icy refreshing mint. They were Pansy's favourites, but he needed to take out the taste of dark chocolate in his mouth. The lingering taste of dark chocolate reminded him of Ginny's laugh and the way her caramel eyes sparkled when their eyes met.

_It was all an act, she decided to go to Potter when you decided not to pay her._

He stuck his hand in the box and pulled out a milk chocolate, he bit into it and found that it was caramel centred, by now he was feeling a bit sick with all the different types of chocolate settled in his stomach at once. He laid back on his bed and the door to the dormitory opened.

"PMS-ing, Draco? Need some chocolate to settle your mood swings?" Blaise Zabini's smooth Italian-toned voice drifted over to Draco's bed as he opened his dresser, evidently looking for something. He sounded all cheery and happy, Draco wanted to bash his head against the wall for smiling like a buffoon that can't keep his mouth from curving upwards.

"Looking for a hole to hide your ugly head in? Talk to me when you can pronounce '_this_' properly," he snapped, referring to the light Italian accent that sometimes showed in Blaise's speech.

Colour quickly began draining from Blaise's face and he quickly reached for his wand; there were a lot of things that he didn't mind joking about but the way he talked was not one of them. He especially did not enjoy taking this type of insult from a blonde ferret that was stuffing himself with chocolate while sneering at him with his hair so slicked with gel that Blaise could probably see his own reflection in it.

"Blaise!" Pansy's excited voice drifted in through the door as her flushed cheeks came into view, she stopped in surprise at seeing Draco. "Hello Draco."

Draco grunted in response. Oh great, now Zabini and Pansy have decided to come to their senses that a sexually deprived pug dog belonged to a too-overly-metrosexual-to-be-straight-asshole with a speech problem.

On the other hand, he supposed Zabini would have to be straight if he was with Pansy but he didn't feel particularly like thinking hard about his insults. Being stuffed with sticky gooey chocolate didn't help one's mind function properly.

Blaise let his wand slip back into his pocket at the sound of Pansy's voice.

"Hurry up!" she urged while standing at the door with false modesty as if she had never stepped in a boys' dorm before.

"Patience, woman!" Blaise replied, purposely pretending to look for something in his closet. Draco felt nauseous at the sight of their sickening flirtation. Maybe he should leave the room so the two of them could shag each other senseless instead of making goo goo eyes at each other.

"I _am _being patient…" she replied, pouting her lips as if she was kissing the dust mites in the air.

"Well obviously not patient enough," he pretended to scold in an obviously flirtatious tone while strutting his chest out like some sort of chicken with breast implants.

"Did you find it yet?" she asked, displaying way too many of her teeth in one smile for someone that's not in a toothpaste advertisment.

She stood with her hip jutted so far up in the air to her left in an attempt to look thinner that Draco marvelled at the human body's ability to mould into shapes resembling sea invertebrates while still staying in one piece.

"Ah, found it!" Blaise exclaimed, pulling out a faded old set of Quidditch robes.

Pansy squealed loudly like a pig about to be slaughtered and ran up to the robes. Draco's eyebrows shot up at a alarming rate and would have disappeared into the roots of his hair if it were possible for eyebrows to move that high.

"Me and Millie just needed something to work with for our _costumes_," she breathed in an attempt to sound seductive.

It was painfully obvious that it was just an excuse for Pansy to invite herself to Blaise's dorm since nobody in Hogwarts, especially the Slytherins, ever dressed up for Halloween even though the school dress code was not in effect for that one day of the year.

"Well you two only have a day to get it together, Halloween's tomorrow," Blaise pointed out as if he didn't know Pansy's real intentions for being in his room. "Draco, weren't you going to go for a fly?"

Oh great, now he was being kicked out of his own dormitory. This is all Dumbledore's fault. If he granted Lucius's request of Draco having his own private room, he wouldn't be subjected to being an audience to this sickening and agonizingly drawn out flirtation.

Draco considered being an arse and lingering around so Blaise would have to take Pansy to one of those horrid broom closets that all the Gryffindors seem to like making out in. But then of course, Blaise might drag this out even more and he would have to sit here and witness more flirting.

"Right, almost forgot about that," he replied and reached under his bed to take out his broom.

Pansy laughed at something Blaise said and for a second, Draco swore he heard Ginny's voice. He needed to get her out of his head.

A fly on his Nimbus may just be the thing he needed.

Hermione noticed that there was something very wrong between Harry and Ginny. They were normally quite friendly with each other and Harry seemed to make an effort to talk to Ginny lately. Today however, they were both trying to avoid any type of contact with each other and each stayed as far away as possible from the other.

However, she also had her own problems to sort out. She and Harry had apparently done something to make Ron extremely angry and he had been glaring at them whenever they saw each other. The tension was even thicker between Harry and Ron. Both boys stiffened up when they saw each other and Ron sat next to Dean and Seamus during class while Harry sat with Neville. For the first time since their first year, the three of them were not sitting together at the Halloween Feast.

Ginny was a great friend, but it still wasn't the same as coming with Harry and Ron. he food, as usual did not appear until after a short address from Dumbledore. However, the student population seemed rowdier than usual and people were staring with extreme interest at the Slytherin table.

Hermione turned to see it was Draco Malfoy, putting a show for all to see with Pansy Parkinson, looking as though he was eating her face for the appetizer because he couldn't wait for the food to appear. She looked beside her for Ginny's reaction but the redhead was already pushing past crowds, running to hide her tears.


	20. In The Midst Of The Storm

-1Chapter 20

Draco's grey eyes watched as her shimmering Titian hair sparkled into the Great Hall. Mudblood Granger was beside her, they were whispering to each other. In a couple of feet behind them, he could see Potter's filthy black hair. His slime green eyes seemed to be trained on the girls. The redhead turned back for a split second before turning sharply back to the front and increasing the speed of her pace. She was _flirting_ with Scarface. She had no right to do that, she was a little tart and would never be anything more than that. How _dare_ she humiliate him in this way, he was a Malfoy. He was a natural lord in his own right. Again, his fists were clenched tightly together.

He felt her eyes upon him. She was mocking him, pretending that he meant something to her when really, she was stringing him along. He desired revenge, he could taste it at his lips like a bitter poison. Fire burned in his silver eyes, he knew Pansy Parkinson was right behind him. He could see that she was smiling at something that Blaise said, but his mind couldn't register that. He could only think about Ginny Weasley and Potter, thrashing their limbs and lips together in the hallway, _flaunting_ their attraction for each other. All that was on his mind was Ginny Weasley _smirking_, smirking at the idiot she managed to fool into thinking she was something more than a whore.

In less than a split second, like the flash of a lightning bolt, Draco grabbed Pansy roughly and forced his lips harshly onto hers. He could feel Pansy resist him as he skilfully slipped his tongue between her lips and placed his hands on her hips where they had been a thousand times previously. Still she struggled, but he wouldn't let her go. She was his prey and while he was strong, she was weak. He knew she would succumb to him, and she did.

She started kissing him back and Draco's lips curved into a smirk. All the flirting between Zabini and Pansy evidently did not mean much as it took him less than two minutes to undo all of it. His eyes fluttered open for a split second to see Ginny's large brown eyes fill up with tears and quickly run out of the Great Hall.

His pride swelled with satisfaction but for some strange unexplainable reason, his heart wrenched at the sight of Ginny running away pitifully away from this spectacle. As he closed his eyes and resumed bruising Pansy's lips, he couldn't help but think of the image of Ginny's retreating back, drifting further and further away from him.

Pansy ran into her dormitory and buried her head in her bed sheets, her body slumped on the soft bed, just barely lifting her hand up to close the curtains surrounding her bed with a flick of her wand. Her head throbbed as events of the past two months kept pulsing through her mind.

Ever since she discovered boys, she had always wanted Draco. She wasn't sure why. There was no doubt that Draco was handsome and could be very charming when he wanted to be. However, he made it extremely clear that he was not interested in having any sort of romantic relationship with her besides shagging her whenever he felt like it; yet she clung on like a pathetic little puppy. She took whatever little trinket he randomly threw at her as a token of love. Her heart would flutter madly if he so much glanced in her direction. She knew he was sleeping with other girls, but it didn't matter, she could turn a blind eye. No man can resist the temptation of a woman offering her body to him. Her own father was the same and her mother knew every single woman that he had ever slept with.

But then Blaise decided to show her a different side of courtship. He was interested in what her body _and_ mind had to offer. Yet, there was a part of her that still pined for Draco and doubted the seedling relationship that was growing between her and Blaise. With Draco, it was much easier to _know_, to _predict_ what would happen next. She could always tell when Draco would cast her aside like an old toy he grew tired of playing with. Pansy got used to the pain over time and it became a part of their relationship.

Draco kissed her and she let him, there was no going back now…

_Draco kissing Parkinson…he's eating her face…he's putting his hand on her arse…_

Ginny couldn't stop thinking about Draco's betrayal; the image of his body pressed against Pansy Parkinson's, how his hand was caressing Parkinson's back the way he had caressed her own body not very long before. The memory of his touch seemed to be burrowed underneath her skin like a stubborn parasite that could not be removed.

On the other hand, she supposed that she did have doubts about their relationship from the start, but she didn't think that they wouldn't be able to make it past Christmas. In fact, technically, their relationship didn't even last until Halloween.

What was she even thinking in the first place? Dating Draco Malfoy? The fact that he was a Slytherin should have triggered her inner 'Jerk Alarm' to ring loudly and as a Weasley, she should have instinctively pushed him away and stayed _far, far _away from him as if he was a dragon with a sneezing problem.

Of course, like every other idiot in the world, there were so many things she should have, could have, would have done; but didn't.

She wish she had some brilliant plan for revenge or she could say that seeing Draco betray her like that didn't affect her at all and she could walk out of this empty, drafty classroom and find herself a new boy to snog. But she couldn't.

A sensation of flaming iciness surged from the bottom of her throat as she ran her palms against the rough stone wall over and over again, faster and faster every time. There was no purpose in doing it, her hands just needed something mindless to do to prevent them from trying to piece her wretchedly broken heart back together.

Flashes of moments with Draco kept popping up in her mind. She could still feel her heart flutter when he kissed her for the first time, how their magic had collected together and was strong enough to destroy the house that trapped them. She remembered how hard she tried to not ogle when she saw his bare chest by the stream on the island. The feeling of being desired and womanly when she saw the flash of Draco's blonde hair in the dark while she was bathing…

All this was too much, Ginny's fingers curled into claws and scratched down the length of the harsh granite wall. Her crimson blood spilled from her finger tips as a sob finally broke through and salty tears ran down her cheeks. Her pitiful sniffles and anguished cries echoed miserably throughout the classroom.

Alone…she was alone, but not for long. The ancient wooden door creaked open and there stood Harry, looking as though he did not know what to do with himself. Evidently, he was listening through the door the entire time and was waiting for the right moment to come in.

Ginny turned her face sharply away so she was facing the wall and Harry couldn't see her face. She pushed him away in the middle of what must have seemed like an enthusiastic snog, ran away from him, and ignored him since. He must be patting himself on the back right now. He was probably thinking to himself how horrible she looked with her face blotchy, her hair probably sticking up in all sorts of directions and her eyes as red as her hair. Even though she was turned away from him, she could feel his intense stare. Maybe he was thinking to himself how lucky he was to not be stuck with an ugly, pathetic creature like her as a girlfriend.

However, none of these thoughts were the ones that were running through Harry's mind. He was thinking of how beautiful she was. She could see a fraction of her face from where he was standing and it was just that fraction that was illuminated by the corridor lighting. That single beam of light that captured her chocolate-brown eyes, her coral-pink lips, and her brilliant red hair. It was more breathtaking than any portrait a painter could create. Even her tears that evoked a sense of sadness streaming from deep within him sparkled like diamonds.

Harry walked towards Ginny's crumpled form, drawn to her like a butterfly to a sunflower. How could anything so pathetic look so beautiful and anything beautiful look so pathetic he did not know, but the only thing he knew was he wanted, _needed_ to be closer to her.

Seeing her pitiful state and hearing her sobs, his heart wrenched with guilt and worry.

Why did she run from the Great Hall in tears all of a sudden? He was an absolute prat for kissing her when she didn't want to be kissed but when he saw her later that day, her eyes weren't red. Why would she break down all of a sudden and cry? It certainly couldn't be out of the fear and overwhelmed feeling of attending the Halloween Feast, she attended it four times previously.

He wanted so desperately to _know_, to _understand_ why she was crying. He knew she didn't want him the same way he wanted her and he knew he was making a fool out of himself, but he just couldn't help it. It seemed that while his mind wanted to escape from her presence, his body had other plans.

His footsteps echoed loudly in the drafty, pitch black classroom. With his body blocking the light, he relied on the sounds of Ginny's sobs to guide him to her until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Harry knew something must be very wrong if Ginny didn't attempt to hide her tears or to threaten to hex him to leave her alone. Instead, she just sat there and wept. That alone, evoked more fear in Harry than any curse she could have threatened him with. He wanted to soothe her pain but the tears that gushed out of her eyes made him freeze up like a Popsicle. What was he supposed to do? Stroke her back? What if it made her think he was feeling her up? As if he wasn't perverted enough in her eyes by kissing her when she didn't want to be kissed and even _forced_ his tongue into her mouth.

"Ginny?" Harry asked shyly. His voice sounded awkward and raspy in the quiet classroom.

She didn't reply. The only sound in the room was Ginny's quiet weeping.

"Ginny? What's wrong?" He tried again, moving closer this time until he was kneeling on the floor next to her. He was so close he could smell the flowery shampoo she used.

She was crying softly now instead of sobbing with great heaves the way she was moments before.

Harry instinctively reached out to touch her shoulder and allowed his hand to slide to her back and rubbed it in small circles. To his shock, Ginny suddenly turned around and fell against his body, crying in loud sobs. He shifted his body so he could wrap his other arm around her. He could feel the warmth and softness of her body sinking into his form and he was sure that if he felt the front of his robes, it would be wet with Ginny's tears.

Between her choked sobs, she seemed to be mumbling broken words into Harry's chest.

"I'm…so…Harry…sorry…I'm sorry," she mumbled in broken phrases.

Why was she saying sorry? He should be the one apologizing as he had a strange feeling at the back of his mind that the reason she was crying had something to do with him.

"Ginny, why are you apologizing?"

"Harry…I'm just…sorry," she choked out her response and buried herself in his embrace.

Harry's heart was pounding. The same girl who had pushed him away when he tried to kiss her just days before was now clinging onto him for dear life. The smell of her hair was intoxicating and drove him mad. His mind had abandoned his head long ago and decided to take up residence in his southern regions. His palms felt as if he had held a piece of toffee in it on a hot summer's day and the obvious discomfort of his restricting trousers.

"It's okay, its alright," he replied in a shaky and nervous voice while stroking her back in awkward movements.

Ginny felt as if she had transported back in time while in Harry's embrace. He smelled like soap, clean laundry, along with a hint of mashed potatoes. He reminded her of mornings at the Burrow where one of her brothers would always be sitting at the table without his shirt on because the smell of breakfast wafted up to the bathroom as he was getting dressed after a shower. Harry's firm chest reminded her of her own father's embraces. Though Arthur Weasley was a bit of a scrawny man, Ginny still felt the safest when she was in his embrace. His voice, so gentle and yet so masculine and deep, laced with just a tremble of uncertainty. Her childhood fairytale hero. How many nights did she demand to hear the story of the Great Harry Potter before going to bed? How many years did she dream of being where she was right now; in Harry's embrace?

He was such a _good_ person. He never realized she existed apart from being Ron's sister until this year but that was partly her own fault. If she wasn't so quiet around him in the previous years, perhaps they would have been great friends long ago. He was always the saviour, protecting Hogwarts and the wizarding world from Voldemort every time ever since he was a year old. Harry was a hero and he made it very clear that he could be her hero if she let him.

Her sobs had long since subsided as she lingered in nostalgia. She felt tired. Tired of this complicated world of teenage angst that she had somehow stumbled into. All she longed for was to be back in her mother's arms and listen to stories of the Great Harry Potter before her father tucked her into bed at night.

"Ginny, your fingers!" Harry exclaimed alarmingly at the dried blood on her hands.

As Ginny looked into Harry's deep emerald eyes and his concerned expression, she knew this was what she needed. She needed someone who may not be romantic and passionate but had a good heart. She needed someone who she could depend on to catch her when she fell. It wasn't something she _wanted_, just needed.

She planted a feather-light kiss on Harry's lips and snuggled back into his embrace.

They sat in silence for a very long time that night.

The members of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team stood in a semicircle around Harry, the newly appointed captain. He was giving the legendary pre-practice preparing-the-mentality-of-the-team-for-a-game-that-isn't-going-to-come-for-a-bloody-week speech that Gryffindor Captains throughout the years were famous for giving.

"Well, you all know our first game is next week against the Slytherins. All I can say is we've beaten them before and we can beat them again. We've got some new players this year but that's even better. These," Harry nodded in the direction of the new Chasers, "are our secret weapons."

His eyes lingered on the redheaded chaser for just a second longer than necessary before going back to his speech.

"But we can't get cocky. The reason why the Slytherins have been getting their arses kicked for so many years is because they're a bunch of cocky bastards," he paused for moment as if to recollect his thoughts, "and because they play dirty."

"Harry, can we fly yet?" Ginny half-whined and half-demanded.

The cool autumn breeze flowed past with just a linger of summer's warmth. She wanted to glide through the wind on her broom, not stand there and listen to Harry ramble on about the same speech that she heard millions of times previously.

"All right, all right, I get the message. I know you all want to fly instead of stand here and listen to me talk. Lets start off with a couple of warm-up laps around the pitch." Everyone eagerly mounted their brooms and took off. Harry headed over to Ginny just as she was about to mount her broom.

"How…" he began, obviously wanting to ask how she was doing but not wanting to sound like he was babying her or sounding he was like her mother.

"Better get on with practice, Captain, or else McGonagall might have to give your captaincy to me if we lose to Slytherin next week," she said as she mounted her broom.

"Well I better get on with it, eh? Wouldn't want a little redhead bossing me around," he replied flirtatiously and placed his hand on her lower back just as she took off.

As the breeze kissed off the feel of Harry's touch, Ginny realized that at the centre of a storm, there is indeed, peace.


	21. A Bittersweet Victory

Chapter 21

"Checkmate," Ginny declared triumphantly as her black queen proceeded to bash Harry's white king off the chessboard.

"Hey, that's not fair! You tricked me into moving that knight so your queen can get to my king." Harry pouted and Ginny laughed. She had to admit that whereas he did not charm her off her feet or create romantic moments, he did have his amusing side.

The two were sitting by the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry was sitting on his usual plushy chair and lost for the fifth time in a row to Ginny in chess. However, no matter how horrible his chess skills were, he had to admit that his heart wasn't really into it; especially when the embers in the fireplace caught the light of Ginny's hair. The orange light made it seem as though she was engulfed in a fiery halo. His eyes were a lot more interested in watching Ginny chew her luscious bottom lip every time she contemplated a move instead of watching the pieces on the chessboard.

"Harry? Are you falling asleep on me?" Harry's eyes snapped open from its glazed expression while Ginny was waving her hand in his face.

"No, no! I'm awake," he replied quickly, forcing himself to look away from the lines of her breasts that showed through her thin white oxford shirt in the glow of the fireplace.

"You look pretty tired, let's just pack up and go to bed," she suggested and proceeded to fold up the chessboard while waving all the chessmen back into the box.

"If the lassie didn't tell this buffoon they're stopping, I would've gone on strike anyhow," the black bishop commented to the black rook as they were hopping back into the box.

"Aye, I swear his eyes were flyin' to her bosom the entire time," the rook replied, Harry blushed crimson. Ginny's eyes glittered teasingly at his red cheeks.

"Last time we played against the blonde gentleman's ivory pieces, now that was a game. They were vicious but-" the bishop's recounting was cut off by Ginny, who promptly slammed the cover on the box. All signs of amusement and colour were drained from her face.

"Shut up!" she screeched, her breathing shallow and rapid, her hand was trembling.

"Ginny?" he asked slightly in fear. He could literally feel the fury churn in the air around her.

"Goodnight, Harry," she replied with gritted teeth and strode briskly to the staircases to the girls' dormitories.

Harry's longing gaze traced the shape of Ginny's back as her furious steps took her further and further away from him. He still did not know what caused Ginny's burst of tears that night, but she seemed to have recovered the next morning and was her usual cheerful self. She didn't even look as though she spent hours crying the night before, probably with the help of beauty charms. However, odd things seemed to set her off occasionally and she would be moody for the rest of the day but be alright again by the next morning. Nobody seemed to know why she was behaving so oddly and Colin and Hermione routinely shot worried looks in her direction. He wanted to ask her and there were several times where the words were about to get choked out from his mouth but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew she hated to be coddled and she would only blow up fiercely at him if he tried to ask her what was wrong. Besides, it wasn't like he would know what to do even if she told him her problem. Just the image of Ginny screaming at him and crying at the same time was enough to turn his legs into jelly…and this is coming from the same person who has faced Death Eaters and Voldemort.

Collin and Hermione evidently attempted to force the reasons for her mood changes out of her and now it seemed that she was avoiding them. She sat beside Harry for almost every meal and did her homework with him. It wasn't that he minded. Ron somehow got into his head that Harry was involved with Hermione in some way and pretty much was on a rampage to turn The-Boy-Who-Lived into The-Boy-Who-Isn't-Living-Anymore whenever he saw Harry within five metres of Hermione. Hermione, on her part simply avoided Ron at all costs but continued talking to Harry. However, she stiffened up like a Popsicle stick whenever she spotted Ron out of the corner of her eye.

Harry's social life was beginning to feel like those melodramatic soap operas that Aunt Petunia loved so much where all the characters dance around in various relationships and somehow, a twin brother or sister that nobody has ever seen before pops up out of nowhere. The only positive side in this situation that Harry could think of was that he was pretty sure he didn't have a twin and he got the girl…somewhat.

In a sense, he supposed he and Ginny were dating. They spent a lot of time together, been on one (disastrous) date, and have kissed twice. But she never made any sign of acknowledging that he was her boyfriend and they've never kissed since that night when Harry held her in his arms while she cried. She certainly never tried to kiss him and he wasn't going to kiss her especially after last time when she pushed him away. They never did any 'couple-y' things like handholding that all the other Hogwarts couples did. In fact, they rarely made any type of physical contact.

Could it be because Ginny had her heart set on someone else? Was that why she was crying that night on the Halloween Feast? If that this was true, then where exactly did Harry come in?

"Argh!" Draco threw his head back and groaned in frustration as he proceeded to swipe the bats out of his gorilla-like beaters' hands. "Just how hard is it to swing the bloody bat and whack the Bludger?"

Both Crabbe and Goyle cowered under the wrath of their Captain despite the fact that they were a head taller than and at least three times as wide as the blonde boy. Crabbe stood with his lower lip trembling as if he was about to burst out in tears while Goyle looked as if his mind was too busy trying to decipher what Draco was saying to register any emotion.

"Just get out!" he bellowed, his temper rising at the sight of the two pathetic faces in front of him. "Go get Jamieson and Tupper!" he demanded, referring to the two Beaters from last year's team that he kicked out in favour of Crabbe and Goyle when he became the Captain this year.

"Useless! The whole lot of you! Potter's the Captain of the Gryffindor Team this year, if we lose; I am kicking every single one of your arses off the team! Damnit, we are not going to lose to the Gryffindorks this time!" He threw his Nimbus down for added effect as half the team shuddered at his voice.

Tupper and Jamieson arrived with their Quidditch gear and broomsticks. Draco summoned a chalkboard with the flick of his wand and proceeded to explain several manoeuvres and plays he found in the library without acknowledging the Beaters.

"We need to take out Potter. Without him, they can't catch the Snitch and win. Tupper, Jamieson, I don't care how many goals their Chasers are scoring, just _track down Potter_!"

"What about Ginny Weasley? She was the Seeker on the team when Potter was banned last year," one of the Chasers spoke up.

Ginny, Ginny, what was he to do with her? He didn't even realize they would be playing against each other until now. The sickening image of a Bludger colliding against her slim and graceful body made him nauseous. No, no he didn't feel nauseous at the thought. The thought of _any_ Gryffindor being hit with a Bludger made him ecstatic, especially the little Weasley, at least it _should_.

"Get Potter _and_ the Weaslette," he finally replied, looking around his team. He suddenly spotted a figure on the far side of the stands; long shimmering red hair, brown caramel eyes…Ginny Weasley.

Grey eyes met brown ones, ice against chocolate, a thousand emotions passed through; their gaze held intensely. Suddenly, the figure of Hermione Granger interrupted the scene. Ginny turned away a second later to acknowledge the older girl and Draco turned back to his team. As much as he did not want to admit it, his traitorous heart was beating rapidly in his chest.

"Watching Malfoy train for the game?" Hermione's voice suddenly broke through the trance of interlocked gazing between Draco and Ginny.

"Don't even say 'I told you so'. Yes, I know, you're right, I'm wrong, okay?" Ginny snapped as she walked briskly through the stands to the staircases.

"I wasn't going to say that-"

"Well if you want to know, Dra-Malfoy turned out to be a bastard, end of story," Ginny explained quickly with her jaw clenched without waiting for Hermione's question. "and don't tell me that's not what you came here to find me for either."

"You make me sound like I'm here for gossip; I'm just worried about you. You've been sulking and avoiding everybody." Hermione sounded genuinely affectionate and Ginny felt slightly bad about snapping at her earlier.

"I know, but I'm fine, there's nothing wrong with me! I'm eating, sleeping, and everything," she insisted.

"Ginny, I'm a witch too, I know about the beauty and glamour spells," Hermione replied with a look that evidently meant she could see through the younger girl's lies.

"What about you? Ron still thinks you're dating Harry and you've been avoiding both of them," Ginny pointed out.

"Don't try to change the topic, and speaking of Harry, what's going on between you two?" Hermione asked, being much too skilled in recognizing signs of someone trying to distract her from a topic, a skill derived from S.P.E.W. discussions with Ron and Harry.

"We're…" Ginny trailed off, no knowing just quite how to answer Hermione.

What was going on between her and Harry? They definitely were not _just_ friends, but there was something that just wasn't…romantic about them. They had _nice_ conversations, she felt _good_ when spending time with him, and his presence made her feel _safe. _But talking with Harry never made her feel tingly inside. Spending time with Harry never made her feel as though her troubles melted away the way like…never mind.

Ginny took a deep breath to force the image of _his_ blonde hair from her mind and how she felt when he touched her. The mixture of fire and ice that coursed through her veins when his hands were on her breasts, how his lips tasted against hers, and how just the thought of him filled her up with warmth. How long had it been since she had that feeling?

"We are who we are," Ginny finally replied, quickly taking a deep breath to suppress the thoughts of _him_ that suddenly rushed into her mind in the space of the last thirty seconds.

"Harry's my best friend and he's been through a lot in life. I don't know what's going on between you and Malfoy, but I don't want to see Harry get hurt," the brunette said to the redhead.

"I know, Hermione, I know," Ginny replied, suddenly realizing what she was doing with Harry: she was using him.

Ginny could feel her cheeks burn with shame as flames of guilt tormented her. Just what was she doing with Harry?!

The roar of the crowd could be heard loud and clear behind the Slytherin end of the Qudditch Pitch entrance. The team decked in robes of emerald-green stood in a semicircle around their captain. The excitement of the spectators was visible through the cracks of the gate, streaming in stripes of light through the otherwise dark corridor. Draco could feel the sand of the pitch on the tips of his fingers that were not covered by his gloves. Beneath the fine leather that protected his hands, his palms were beginning to perspire.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, this match meant more to him than just the Quidditch Cup or catching the Snitch. Potter got the best of him with little Weaslette, he'll show him this time. This time, he will be the champion.

"Welcome to the first Quidditch Match of the year! Gryffindor versus Slytherin!" the amplified voice of the commentator for this match vibrated throughout the pitch. On cue, the gates opened and it was time for the teams to walk out.

The first rays of sun sliced into Draco's eyes after being in darkness for so long and he resisted the urge to cover them with his hands. He needed to show strength and maintain his composure despite the increasing stickiness of his palms. He was greeted with a multitude of Gryffindor supporters with banners of roaring lions and shouts of 'Go, go, Gryffindor!' He wondered whose brilliant idea it was to have the supporters of the respective teams sit where the players entered. He mentally cursed them for making him endure the sight of supporters for the other team screaming enthusiastically for their team every time he entered the pitch. He could see Potter leading his team into the stadium at the other end of the pitch, his jaw stiffened and his hand tightened around his broom.

Madam Hooch landed gracefully from her customary pre-game lap around the pitch. She stood at the centre of the pitch while Harry and Draco walked towards each other, both trying hard not to show any signs of nervousness. Draco saw a flash of red hair behind Harry; he forced his eyes to focus on glaring at Harry instead.

"I don't want anybody bringing any hard feelings from outside the pitch into the game. Do you all understand?" Madam Hooch's glare rested especially long on Draco.

Murmurs of 'Yes ma'am' sounded from the circle of players, already mounted on their brooms, waiting eagerly for the signal to kick off.

"Captains, shake hands." Harry and Draco stepped towards each other with their backs straight and a look of intense loathing in their eyes. Each tried to maintain his composure while his hand was being crushed.

Madam Hooch flipped open the crate with a flick of her wand, the red Quaffle and the two rattling Bludgers were released into the air. The tiny Golden Snitch was released and the game began with green and red blurs streaking into the air. Draco felt the familiar exhilarating whoosh in his chest as he ascended higher and higher on his broom. His eyes squinted and scanned the field for signs of a golden streak: so far there was none.

"Gryffindor in possession of the Quaffle, smooth past between Fleming and Ginny Weasley," the commentator, (who Draco guessed was Keating from Hufflepuff) noted.

Draco's heart couldn't help pumping faster at the mention of Ginny Weasley. He saw Harry dip his broom into a steep dive out of the corner of his eye. Draco didn't care whether or not he really spotted the Snitch, but he wasn't going to take the chances of Potter with the Snitch in his hand grinning victoriously while he hovered in mid-air like an idiot on the other side of the pitch. Draco pulled on his broom to accelerate to where Harry was and both the Slytherin and Gryffindor spectators seemed to be holding their breath.

"It seems that the Snitch has been sight! Potter's plunging into a steep dive and Malfoy is rapidly following! Is Potter feinting? He seems to be pulling out of his dive, ohh nasty situation there for Malfoy!" Keating noted excitedly, not without a hint of rejoice on the observation of Draco's predicament.

Draco gave Harry the finger as he managed to barely pull out of the dive in one piece with the sand from the pitch at the tip of his broom. Harry glared back and Draco would have given Keating the finger if not for fear that the commentator would actually note on the microphone that 'the Slytherin Seeker is currently making an obscene gesture to the commentator'. He doubted that McGonagall or Hooch would let him get away with that.

"Ginny Weasley scores, 10-0 for Gryffindor!" Loud cheers erupted from the Gryffindor supporters. "Slytherin now in possession."

Draco did a couple of laps around the pitch, diverting from his path only to avoid Bludgers, trying to spot signs of something golden or sparkly. A spiralling manoeuvre by Daphne Greengrass of Slytherin with the Quaffle nearly knocked him off is broom when he thought the golden logo on her broom was the Snitch.

"Greengrass attempts to score on Gryffindor, excellent block by Ronald Weasley. She catches the Quaffle again, going for rebound, perhaps? Oh, she shoots, she scores! The game is now tied 10-10, no sign of the Snitch yet."

He saw Potter fly past out of the corner of his eye, why was he still in one piece when he ordered his Beaters to aim only for Potter?

"Gryffindor now in possession, Tudor's just knocking all the Slytherins off their broom with that Quaffle in his hand. He scores! 20-10 to Gryffindor," Keating noted gleefully, "Greengrass passes the Quaffle to Stuart, it's been intercepted by Ginny Weasley! She scores again! 30-10 to Gryffindor!"

Gryffindor's score elevated higher still while Slytherin remained with only one goal. Draco, and the rest of the team for that matter was getting desperate. The Chasers were beginning to fly erratically in the paths of the Gryffindor Chasers in hopes that they can steal the Quaffle while the Gryffindors were trying to dodge them. The Beaters were slamming the Bludgers at anything resembling a player and Draco himself narrowly avoided being hit.

"Ginny Weasley scores yet again! 70-10 to Gryffindor, she's on fire today, isn't she?" Draco was sure that 'on fire' had other implications to it and felt himself more annoyed with Keating than he already was.

Just where the bloody hell was that Snitch? The anticipation for the shiny object and the flash of _her_ hair out of the corner of his eye every few seconds was making his emotions explode inside of him left, right, and centre. His body was damp with sweat and he felt as though he lost his ability to think clearly with the increasingly louder cheers of 'Go, go Gryffindor!' and the Bludgers flying at him every couple of seconds combined with the flashbacks of all the Quidditch matches he ever lost to Gryffindor in the past. He felt as if he didn't feel the Snitch in his hand by the end of the match, he would go insane.

Suddenly, a flash of gold winked at Draco from the Ravenclaw stands on the other side of the pitch. He wasn't sure if Harry spotted it but he quickly accelerated, his mind already picturing the victory celebrations in the Common Room later on.

"Malfoy seems to have spotted the Snitch and Potter's catching on! But will he be the one to catch the Snitch so to speak…" Keating's commentary was absolutely irritating with the little 'jokes'. He really needed to remember to stuff this Hufflepuff in an empty suit of knight's armour the next time he saw him in the corridors. He pushed his broom to go even faster and soon the commentary was drowned out by the whistling of the wind.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Harry's messy black hair and his body pressed down against his broom to reduce air resistance and push his Firebolt to move quicker. Draco saw a Bludger barrelling at the two of them in full speed and quickly shifted his broom to the right while Harry did the same to the left. Maybe he slowed down while shifting his broom or the wind conditions were just right, but for some reason, Draco heard a scream from a very familiar voice behind him. He turned around instinctively and saw Ginny falling off of her broom. Her slender form fluttered in the air like a rag doll while the rogue Bludger slammed past her in search of another victim. Draco's mind leapt to his beating heart and all thoughts of the Snitch and winning were forgotten. All he knew was that Ginny was falling and he needed to save her, to catch her and feel her in his arms.

He suddenly remembered how her lips tasted when they first kissed, how beautiful her naked body was when basked in the moonlight…he felt as if he had been hit by the Bludger with the force of the memories barrelled back at him. He pulled his broom into a dive and streaked after Ginny, praying to whichever god or goddesses there were out there that his Nimbus would not fail him at a time like this. More images of times they had spent together kept flashing in his mind as he urged his broom to fly faster still.

As Ginny was about thirty feet from the ground, Draco was finally close enough to let go on one arm and grab Ginny by the shoulders. Just as he came in contact with her body, a Bludger crashed into his hip and he could feel his broom slipping away from him, while the ground was rushing up to greet his body, he thought only of shielding Ginny's body with his own before he slipped into unconsciousness with a heavy thud.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pitch, Harry Potter watched with the fluttering Snitch in his hand. As soon as his fingers touched the golden ball and the crowd's cheering did not match the euphoria he felt, he knew something was wrong. Rather than the usual whooping, all he heard was concerned murmurs streaming through the crowd like a tidal wave. As he saw Ginny's beautiful form on the ground protected by Malfoy's body, all the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. Harry may have caught the Snitch, but it was Malfoy who abandoned the Snitch for something more important, it was he who really was victorious.

For once in his life, Harry Potter wished he had not caught the Snitch.


End file.
